Institut für Philosophie


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Vagueness

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Beschreibung

' x is a prime number' is a sharp predicate: for all x, either x is a prime number or not. 'x is tall', in contrast, is a vague predicate: if Alex is five foot she is definitely not tall, if Alex is seven foot she is definitely tall, but if Alex is six foot two she is a borderline case of vagueness -- she is neither definitely tall nor definitely not tall. Vague predicates create problems in many areas, for instance in logic (if Alex is neither definitely tall nor definitely not tall, then it is not the case that either "Alex is tall" or "Alex is not tall" is true, which violates the principle of bivalence definitive of standard logic), in philosophy (if 'F' is a vague predicate, one can construct a sorites paradox, a valid argument based on true premises with an absurd conclusion), metaphysics (might the world itself be vague?), and linguistics (can we/must we include in our grammar a kind of 'fuzzy' interval surrounding the obvious cases?). In the seminar, we'll tackle all the four issues just mentioned.

Weitere Angaben

Veranstaltungsart: Seminar (Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen)
Veranstaltungsnummer: 8.3550
Ort: 50/E07
Zeiten: Do. 16:00 - 18:00 (wöchentlich)
Erster Termin: Donnerstag, 27.10.2022 16:00 - 18:00

Studienbereiche

  • Cognitive Science > Bachelor-Programm
  • Cognitive Science > Master-Programm