Single Idea 9062

[catalogued under 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 10. Vagueness / g. Degrees of vagueness]

Full Idea

Many-valued theories still seem to have a sharp boundary between sentences taking truth-value 1 and those taking value less than 1. So there is a last man in our sorites series who counts as 'completely tall'.

Gist of Idea

If truth-values for vagueness range from 0 to 1, there must be someone who is 'completely tall'

Source

R Keefe / P Smith (Intro: Theories of Vagueness [1997], §4)

Book Reference

'Vagueness: a Reader', ed/tr. Keefe,R /Smith,P [MIT 1999], p.46


A Reaction

Lovely. Completely nice, totally red, perfectly childlike, an utter mountain, one hundred per cent amused. The enterprise seems to have the same implausibility found in Bayesian approaches to assessing evidence.