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Single Idea 23541

[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 10. Vagueness / f. Supervaluation for vagueness ]

Full Idea

Under supervaluation there should always be someone who is the last bald man in the sequence, but there is always an acceptable way to make some other man the last bald man.

Gist of Idea

Supervaluation can give no answer to 'who is the last bald man'

Source

Kit Fine (Vagueness: a global approach [2020], 1)

Book Ref

Fine,Kit: 'Vagueness: a global approach' [OUP 2020], p.13


A Reaction

Fine seems to take this as a conclusive refutation of the supervaluation approach. Fine says (p.41) that supervaluation says there is a precisification for every instance.


The 10 ideas from 'Vagueness: a global approach'

Classical semantics has referents for names, extensions for predicates, and T or F for sentences [Fine,K]
Local indeterminacy concerns a single object, and global indeterminacy covers a range [Fine,K]
Conjoining two indefinites by related sentences seems to produce a contradiction [Fine,K]
Identifying vagueness with ignorance is the common mistake of confusing symptoms with cause [Fine,K]
Supervaluation can give no answer to 'who is the last bald man' [Fine,K]
We identify laws with regularities because we mistakenly identify causes with their symptoms [Fine,K]
We do not have an intelligible concept of a borderline case [Fine,K]
Standardly vagueness involves borderline cases, and a higher standpoint from which they can be seen [Fine,K]
Indeterminacy is in conflict with classical logic [Fine,K]
It seems absurd that there is no identity of any kind between two objects which involve survival [Fine,K]