Single Idea 9768

[catalogued under 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 10. Vagueness / d. Vagueness as linguistic]

Full Idea

I take vagueness to be a semantic feature, a deficiency of meaning. It is to be distinguished from generality, undecidability, and ambiguity.

Gist of Idea

Vagueness is semantic, a deficiency of meaning

Source

Kit Fine (Vagueness, Truth and Logic [1975], Intro)

Book Reference

'Vagueness: a Reader', ed/tr. Keefe,R /Smith,P [MIT 1999], p.120


A Reaction

Sounds good. If we cut nature at the joints with our language, then nature is going to be too subtle and vast for our finite and gerrymandered language, and so it will break down in tricky situations. But maybe epistemology precedes semantics?