more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
If one takes a spectrum of colours from yellow to red, it might be that given a series of colour samples along that spectrum, each sample is indiscriminable by the naked eye from the next one, though samples at either end are blatantly different.
Gist of Idea
How can one discriminate yellow from red, but not the colours in between?
Source
Timothy Williamson (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.151)
Book Ref
Baggini,J/Stangroom,J: 'New British Philosophy' [Routledge 2002], p.151
A Reaction
This seems like a nice variant of the Sorites paradox (Idea 6008). One could demonstrate it with just three samples, where A and C seemed different from each other, but other comparisons didn't.
Related Idea
Idea 6008 Removing one grain doesn't destroy a heap, so a heap can't be destroyed [Eubulides, by Dancy,R]
6858 | Formal logic struck me as exactly the language I wanted to think in [Williamson] |
6859 | Analytic philosophy has much higher standards of thinking than continental philosophy [Williamson] |
6860 | How can one discriminate yellow from red, but not the colours in between? [Williamson] |
6861 | What sort of logic is needed for vague concepts, and what sort of concept of truth? [Williamson] |
6862 | Fuzzy logic uses a continuum of truth, but it implies contradictions [Williamson] |
6863 | Close to conceptual boundaries judgement is too unreliable to give knowledge [Williamson] |