A Contextualist Approach to Higher‐Order Vagueness | Zendy

Montminy Martin | Zendy

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A Contextualist Approach to Higher‐Order Vagueness

Author(s) -

Montminy Martin

Publication year - 2016

Publication title -

the southern journal of philosophy

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.281

H-Index - 21

eISSN - 2041-6962

pISSN - 0038-4283

DOI - 10.1111/sjp.12177

Subject(s) - vagueness , contextualism , predicate (mathematical logic) , epistemology , philosophy , philosophy of language , linguistics , metaphysics , computer science , interpretation (philosophy) , programming language , fuzzy logic

According to contextualism about vagueness, the content of a vague predicate is context sensitive. On this view, when item a is in the penumbra of the vague predicate ‘ F ’, speakers may (truly) utter ‘ Fa ’, or they may (truly) utter ‘not‐ Fa ’, without contravening the literal meaning of ‘ F ’. Unlike its more popular variants, the version of contextualism I defend rejects the principle of tolerance, a principle according to which small differences should not affect the applicability of a vague predicate. My goal is to show how such a rejection allows for a plausible treatment of higher‐order vagueness, and for a dissolution of paradoxes of higher‐order vagueness.

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