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In a world of change, we see species go from common to rare and yet are unable to point to any moment at which they ceased to be common. We see people grow old and yet cannot nominate any moment at which they ceased to be young. Nonetheless, transitions like these surely must occur at some point, if at all. There must be a change somewhere but no particular point can be singled out as the point of...
In this chapter, we explore some important questions concerning vagueness that arise in connection with the deployment of certain key metaphysical notions – in particular, the notions of an object, of identity, of constitution, of composition, of persistence, and finally of existence. Various philosophers have argued for or against the view that there can be vague object’s, or that the identity and...
The plan of this survey is to discuss the sort of model-theory that is suggested (or demanded) by the main, rival accounts of vagueness, and to thereby delineate the logic of each. I will try to indicate, in each case, what the logic would be if the account in question were correct. Since the main logical problem facing vagueness is the sorites paradox, the present survey assesses what each account...
One natural thought to have about vagueness is that the indeterminacy or imprecision inherent in vague expressions is intimately tied to the meanings of these expressions. If this is right, then important tool for studying vague predicates will be meaning theories. There are three critical issues that must be addressed by any such theory: the incompatibility of vague predicates with the ‘governing...
Vague observational predicates like ‘red’ and ‘loud’ are associated with at least two distinctive philosophical problems. First, these words appear to generate the most intractable form of the sorites paradox because they permit the construction of sorites series in which neighboring items are indiscriminable, not just incrementally different, on the relevant dimension. While it is at least non-incredible...
This chapter provides a (biased) overview of analyses of vagueness within linguistics. First, the nature of vagueness is discussed, and contrasted with notions such as ambiguity and context dependence. After that, some reasons are given that could perhaps explain why vagueness is such a pervasive phenomenon in natural language. This is followed with a review of some more or less standard linguistic...
Vagueness in law is typically extravagant, in the sense that it is possible for two competent users of the language, who understand the facts of each case, to take such different views as to the application of a vague law that there is not even any overlap between the cases that each disputant would identify as borderline. Extravagant vagueness is a necessary feature of legal systems. It is a reason...
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