Vagueness: A Guide, 2011 Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science Series, Vol. 19

This volume explores how vagueness matters as a specific problem in the context of theories that are primarily about something else. After an introductory chapter on the Sorites paradox, which exposes the various forms the paradox can take and some of the responses that have been pursued, the book proceeds with a chapter on vagueness and metaphysics, which covers important questions concerning vagueness that arise in connection with the deployment of certain key metaphysical notions. Subsequent chapters address the following: vagueness and logic, which discusses the sort of model theory that is suggested by the main, rival accounts of vagueness; vagueness and meaning, which focuses on contextualist, epistemicist, and indeterminist theories; vagueness and observationality; vagueness within linguistics, which focuses on approaches that take comparison classes into account; and the idea that vagueness in law is typically extravagant and that extravagant vagueness is a necessary feature of legal systems.

Notes on the Contributors.- Introduction: Vagueneness and.... ; Giuseppina Ronzitti.- 1. The Sorites Paradox; Dominic Hyde.- 2. Vagueness and Metaphysics; Jonathan Lowe.- 3. Vagueness and Logic; Stewart Shapiro.- 4. Vagueness an Meaning Theories; Roy Cook.- 5. Vagueness and Observationality; Diana Raffman.- 6. Vagueness and Linguistics; Robert van Rooij.- 7. Vagueness and Law; Timothy Endicott.- Index

Systematic presentation of the problem of vagueness

Written by renown scholars

Vagueness is treated thematically