Single Idea 9064

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

Full Idea

A common intuition is that a vague object has indeterminate or fuzzy spatio-temporal boundaries, such as a cloud. Mount Everest can only have arbitrary boundaries placed around it, so in nature it must have fuzzy boundaries.

Gist of Idea

Objects such as a cloud or Mount Everest seem to have fuzzy boundaries in nature

Source

R Keefe / P Smith (Intro: Theories of Vagueness [1997], §5)

Book Reference

'Vagueness: a Reader', ed/tr. Keefe,R /Smith,P [MIT 1999], p.51


A Reaction

We would have to respond by questioning whether Everest counts precisely as an 'object'. At the microscopic or subatomic level it seems that virtually everything has fuzzy boundaries. Maybe boundaries don't really exist.