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Single Idea 9767

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

Full Idea

A vague sentence is (roughly stated) true if and only if it is true for all ways of making it completely precise (the 'super-truth theory').

Gist of Idea

A vague sentence is only true for all ways of making it completely precise

Source

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

Book Ref

'Vagueness: a Reader', ed/tr. Keefe,R /Smith,P [MIT 1999], p.119


A Reaction

Intuitively this sounds quite promising. Personally I think we should focus on the 'proposition' rather than the 'sentence' (where fifteen sentences might be needed before we can agree on the one proposition).


The 11 ideas from 'Vagueness, Truth and Logic'

Study vagueness first by its logic, then by its truth-conditions, and then its metaphysics [Fine,K]
Vagueness is semantic, a deficiency of meaning [Fine,K]
A vague sentence is only true for all ways of making it completely precise [Fine,K]
Logical connectives cease to be truth-functional if vagueness is treated with three values [Fine,K]
Vagueness can be in predicates, names or quantifiers [Fine,K]
Meaning is both actual (determining instances) and potential (possibility of greater precision) [Fine,K]
Logic holding between indefinite sentences is the core of all language [Fine,K]
With the super-truth approach, the classical connectives continue to work [Fine,K]
Borderline cases must be under our control, as capable of greater precision [Fine,K]
Excluded Middle, and classical logic, may fail for vague predicates [Fine,K]
A thing might be vaguely vague, giving us higher-order vagueness [Fine,K]