Single Idea 16459

[catalogued under 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 10. Vagueness / b. Vagueness of reality]

Full Idea

Maybe the world is vague, and vagueness is a necessary feature of any true description of it. Also identities may lack a determinate truth value because of their vagueness. Hence it is a fact that some objects have fuzzy boundaries. But is this coherent?

Gist of Idea

Is it coherent that reality is vague, identities can be vague, and objects can have fuzzy boundaries?

Source

Gareth Evans (Can there be Vague Objects? [1978])

Book Reference

Evans,Gareth: 'Collected Papers' [OUP 1985], p.176


A Reaction

[compressed] Lewis quotes this introduction to the famous short paper, to show that Evans wasn't proposing a poor argument, but offering a reductio of the view that vagueness is 'ontic', or a feature of the world.

Related Idea

Idea 16458 Semantic vagueness involves alternative and equal precisifications of the language [Lewis]