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Vagueness: Supervaluationism
Author(s) -
Keefe Rosanna
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
philosophy compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.973
H-Index - 25
ISSN - 1747-9991
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2008.00124.x
Subject(s) - vagueness , sentence , epistemology , order (exchange) , operator (biology) , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , fuzzy logic , economics , biochemistry , chemistry , finance , repressor , transcription factor , gene
This piece gives an overview of the supervaluationist theory of vagueness. According to that theory, a sentence is true if and only if it is true on all ways of making it precise. This yields borderline case predications that are neither true nor false, but yet classical logic is preserved almost entirely. The article presents the view and some of its merits and briefly compares it with other theories of vagueness. It raises issues about higher‐order vagueness and the definitely operator and about the supervaluationist's accounts of truth and validity.