In defense of true higher-order vagueness: a discussion of Stewart Shapiro on higher-order vagueness

Synthese 180 (3):317-335 (2011)
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Abstract

ABSTRACT: Stewart Shapiro recently argued that there is no higher-order vagueness. More specifically, his thesis is: (ST) ‘So-called second-order vagueness in ‘F’ is nothing but first-order vagueness in the phrase ‘competent speaker of English’ or ‘competent user of “F”’. Shapiro bases (ST) on a description of the phenomenon of higher-order vagueness and two accounts of ‘borderline case’ and provides several arguments in its support. We present the phenomenon (as Shapiro describes it) and the accounts; then discuss Shapiro’s arguments, arguing that none is compelling. Lastly, we introduce the account of vagueness Shapiro would have obtained had he retained compositionality and show that it entails true higher-order vagueness.

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Susanne Bobzien
University of Oxford

Citations of this work

The Nature and Logic of Vagueness.Marian Călborean - 2020 - Dissertation, University of Bucharest

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References found in this work

Vagueness, truth and logic.Kit Fine - 1975 - Synthese 30 (3-4):265-300.
Understanding Truth.Scott Soames - 1998 - Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press USA.
Theories of Vagueness.Rosanna Keefe - 2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Vagueness in Context.Stewart Shapiro - 2006 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press UK.
Distinctions Without a Difference.Vann McGee & Brian McLaughlin - 1995 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 33 (S1):203-251.

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