Vagueness : a reader / edited by Rosanna Keefe and Peter Smith.

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Material type: Text

TextCopyright date: �1996Description: 1 online resource (vi, 352 pages) : illustrationsContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

0585021279
9780585021270
9780262112253
0262112256
9780262276887
0262276887
9780262611459
0262611457

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Additional physical formats: Print version:: Vagueness.DDC classification:

110 21

LOC classification:

B105.V33 V34 1996eb

Other classification:

08.33
CB 4150
CC 2500
CC 4800
ER 640
HF 421
5,1

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

1. Introduction: theories of vagueness / Rosanna Keefe and Peter Smith -- 2. On the sorites / Diogenes Laertius, Galen and Cicero -- 3. Vagueness / Bertrand Russell -- 4. Vagueness: an exercise in logical analysis / Max Black -- 5. Vagueness and logic / Carl G. Hempel -- 6. Truth and vagueness / Henryk Mehlberg -- 7. The sorites paradox / James Cargile -- 8. Wang's paradox / Michael Dummett -- 9. Vagueness, truth and logic / Kit Fine -- 10. Language-mastery and the sorites paradox / Crispin Wright -- 11. Truth, belief and vagueness / Kenton F. Machina -- 12. Further reflections on the sorites paradox / Crispin Wright -- 13. Concepts without boundaries / R.M. Sainsbury -- 14. Vagueness and ignorance / Timothy Williamson -- 15. Sorites paradoxes and the semantics of vagueness / Michael Tye -- 16. Vagueness by degress / Dorothy Edgington -- 17. Can there be vague objects? / Gareth Evans -- 18. Vague identity: Evans misunderstood / David Lewis.

Summary: Vagueness is currently the subject of vigorous debate in the philosophy of logic and language. Vague terms - such as 'tall', 'red', 'bald', and 'tadpole' - have borderline cases (arguably, someone may be neither tall nor not tall); and they lack well-defined extensions (there is no sharp boundary between tall people and the rest). So the phenomenon of vagueness poses a fundamental challenge to classical logic and semantics, which assumes that propositions are either true or false and that extensions are determinate. Another striking problem to which vagueness gives rise is the sorites paradox. If you remove one grain from a heap of sand, surely you must be left with a heap. Yet apply this principle repeatedly as you remove grains one by one, and you end up, absurdly, with a solitary grain that counts as a heap. This anthology collects for the first time the most important papers in the area.

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"A Bradford book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 338-345) and index.

Vagueness is currently the subject of vigorous debate in the philosophy of logic and language. Vague terms - such as 'tall', 'red', 'bald', and 'tadpole' - have borderline cases (arguably, someone may be neither tall nor not tall); and they lack well-defined extensions (there is no sharp boundary between tall people and the rest). So the phenomenon of vagueness poses a fundamental challenge to classical logic and semantics, which assumes that propositions are either true or false and that extensions are determinate. Another striking problem to which vagueness gives rise is the sorites paradox. If you remove one grain from a heap of sand, surely you must be left with a heap. Yet apply this principle repeatedly as you remove grains one by one, and you end up, absurdly, with a solitary grain that counts as a heap. This anthology collects for the first time the most important papers in the area.

Print version record.

English.

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