The riddle of vagueness : selected essays 1975-2020 / Crispin Wright.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wright, Crispin, 1942- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vagueness (Philosophy).

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 448 pages).

Other Title:

Selected essays 1975-2020

Place of Publication:

Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press, [2021]

Summary:

What should we make of the vagueness we find in our language and thought? This has been one of the most debated questions in philosophy in recent decades. Crispin Wright has been a key figure in this area since the 1970s, and now at last his highly influential work on the topic is drawn together in a book.

Contents:

Cover

The Riddle of Vagueness: Selected Essays 1975-2020

Copyright

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

Origins of the Essays

Introduction

An Overview

Tolerance as Putatively a priori

The Tachometer Paradox

Rules and Rationality on the Borderline

The Intuitionistic Approach to Vagueness

Higher-OrderVagueness

Conclusion

1: On the Coherence of Vague Predicates

I

II

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

III

IV

V

VI

2: Language-Mastery and the Sorites Paradox*

3: Hairier than Putnam Thought

4: Further Reflections on the Sorites Paradox

The Governing View and the Sorites Paradox

Accepting the Paradox

Resolving the Paradox by Jettison of the First Claim of the Governing View

Tolerance and Observationality

Peacocke's Positive Proposals: Degree-Theoretic Approaches

Higher-Order Vagueness and the No Sharp Boundaries Paradox

VII

The Governing View and the Major Premises

VIII

5: Is Higher-Order Vagueness Coherent?

6: The Epistemic Conception of Vagueness

For the Existence of Sharp Cut-Offs (1) Williamson on Bivalence

Do Borderline Cases Involve Truth-Value Gaps?

For the Existence of Sharp Cut-Offs (2) Sorensen on Limited Sensitivity

Definiteness

For the Existence of Sharp Cut-Offs (3) Sorensen's Clones

Why Can't we Know where the Sharp Cut-Offs Lie?

Epistemicism, Reference, and Deliberate Approximation

7: On Being in a Quandary: Relativism, Vagueness, Logical Revisionism

Relativism

The Sorites

Revisionism

Revisionism Saved

An Intuitionistic Solution to the Sorites

Relativism Stabilized

VII.

Epistemic Indeterminacy

Summary Reflections

8: Rosenkranz on Quandary, Vagueness, and Intuitionism

9: Vagueness: A Fifth Column Approach

The Vagueness Trilemma

What are Borderline Cases?

Reconfiguring the Range of Options

The Misconceived Conditional and the Sorites

Motivations for Agnosticism about Bivalence concerning Vague Predications

10: Vagueness-Related Partial Belief and the Constitution of Borderline Cases

11: 'Wang's Paradox'

Vagueness as Semantic Incompleteness

Vagueness as Unknown Precision

Vagueness as Incoherence

Vague Discourse as Unprincipled

The Modus Ponens Model of Rule-Following

The Sorites Paradox of Observationality

Denouément

12: The Illusion of Higher-Order Vagueness

The Ineradicability Intuition

The Seamlessness Intuition

Potential Confusions about Higher-Order Vagueness-Three Distinct Notions

The Basic Formula and Lack of Sharp Boundaries

Thesis (c) and the Paradox of Higher-Order Vagueness

A Revenge Problem for the Buffering View

The Transition Problem

The Ineradicability Intuition Once More

13: On the Characterization of Borderline Cases

Vagueness-Related Partial Belief

Verdict Exclusion

Stabilizing Liberalism

Quandary and the Characterization Problem

The Logic of Vagueness

14: Intuitionism and the Sorites Paradox

Introduction: The Basic Analogy

The Tolerance and 'No Sharp Boundaries' Paradoxes

Constraints on an Intuitionistic Solution

Addressing Constraint 1: The Basic Revisionary Argument

V.

One Objection to the Basic Revisionary Argument

Two Further Objections

Addressing Constraint 1: A Different Tack-Knowledge-Theoretic Semantics

Addressing Constraint 1 (Cont.): The Payoff

IX

Addressing Constraint 2

X

Addressing Constraint 3

Appendix To Chapter 14: The 'Forced March' Paradox

References

General Index

Index of Names.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-264779-2

0-19-191571-8

0-19-166295-X

OCLC:

1260346056