A modal argument against vague objects
Philosophers' Imprint 8 (12):1-17 (2008)
| Abstract | There has been much discussion of whether there could be objects A and B that are “individuatively vague” in the following way: object A and object B neither determinately stand in the relation of identity to one another, nor do they determinately fail to stand in this relation. If there are objects of this type, then we would have a genuine case of metaphysical vagueness, or “vagueness-in-the-world.” The possibility of vague objects in this sense strikes many as incoherent. The possibility’s very description not only seems to talk of two objects but, much worse, it seems to point to a feature that distinguishes them: unlike object A, object B is not determinately identical to object A. This suspicion of incoherence is voiced in the famous arguments given against the possibility by Gareth Evans and Nathan Salmon. But the status of those arguments and others is uncertain. Here I present a new argument against vague objects — or more precisely, against the possibility of individuatively vague objects that satisfy an important and common additional condition that I will call “Democracy.” Since my argument turns on a connection between what is indeterminate and what is possible, I call it “the modal argument.”. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,653 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesNed Markosian (2000). Sorensen's Argument Against Vague Objects. Philosophical Studies 97 (1):1-9.
Anthony Everett (1996). Qualia and Vagueness. Synthese 106 (2):205-226.
Shunsuke Yatabe & Hiroyuki Inaoka (2006). On Evans's Vague Object From Set Theoretic Viewpoint. Journal of Philosophical Logic 35 (4):423 - 434.
Jiri Benovsky (2008). There Are Vague Objects (in Any Sense in Which There Are Ordinary Objects). Studia Philosophica Estonica 1:1-4.
Elizabeth Barnes & J. R. G. Williams (2009). Vague Parts and Vague Identity. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 90 (2):176-187.
Elisa Paganini (2011). Vague Objects Without Ontically Indeterminate Identity. Erkenntnis 74 (3):351-362.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads72 ( #11,639 of 548,984 )Recent downloads (6 months)9 ( #7,667 of 548,984 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
