Temporal Externalism , Constitutive Norms , and Theories of Vagueness Henry Jackman
نویسنده
چکیده
Vagueness has always been a problem for philosophers. This is true in a number of ways. One obvious way is that the vagueness inherent in much philosophical discourse has always lead to problems in the interpretation and criticism of philosophical arguments. This is a way in which the vagueness of language causes problems for philosophers. (We can call this “the practical problem of vagueness.”) However, in addition to the problems that vagueness causes, there is also the more general problem that the mere existence of vagueness causes philosophical problems of its own. (We can call this “the theoretical problem of vagueness.”) These problems were first presented in Aristotle’s time in a form that is typically referred to as the sorites paradox. Sorites arguments run roughly as follows.
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