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). 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. This anthology collects for the first time the most important papers in the field. After a substantial introduction that surveys the field, the essays form four groups, starting with some historically notable pieces. The 1970s saw an explosion of interest in vagueness, and the second group of essays reprints classic papers from this period. The following group of papers represent the best recent work on the logic and semantics of vagueness. The essays in the final group are contributions to the continuing debate about vague objects and vague identity.
Edited by:
Rosanna Kenney,
Peter Smith,
Peter Smith
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 150mm,
Spine: 19mm
Weight: 522g
ISBN: 9780262611459
ISBN 10: 0262611457
Series: Vagueness
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 22 January 1999
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
,
A / AS level
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction - Theories of vagueness, Rosanna Keefe, Peter Smith; On the sorites, Diogenes Laertius, Galen and Cicero; Vagueness, Bertrand Russell; Vagueness - an exercise in logical analysis, Max Black; Vagueness and logic, Carl G. Hempel; Truth and vagueness, Henryk Mehlberg; The sorites paradox, James Cargile; Wang's paradox, Michael Dummett; Vagueness, truth and logic, Kit Fine; Language-mastery and the sorites paradox, Crispin Wright; Truth, belief and vagueness, Kenton F. Machina; Further reflections on the sorites paradox, Crispin Wright; Concepts without boundaries, R.M. Sainsbury; Vagueness and ignorance, Timothy Williamson, Sorites paradoxes and the semantics of vagueness, Michael Tye; Vagueness by degrees, Dorothy Edington; Can there be vague objects? Gareth Evans; Vague identity - Evans misunderstood, David Lewis; Worldly indeterminacy of identity, Terence Parsons, Peter Woodruff.
Rosanna Keefe is a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge University Peter Smith is a member of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge.
Reviews for Vagueness: A Reader
This balanced and comprehensive collection will be a standard reference for many years to come. --Alice Kyburg, Computational Linguistics
