Vagueness: Supervaluationism

Philosophy Compass 3 (2):315–324 (2008)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This piece gives an overview of the supervaluationist theory of vagueness. According to that theory, a sentence is true if and only if it is true on all ways of making it precise. This yields borderline case predications that are neither true nor false, but yet classical logic is preserved almost entirely. The article presents the view and some of its merits and briefly compares it with other theories of vagueness. It raises issues about higher-order vagueness and the definitely operator and about the supervaluationist's accounts of truth and validity.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 106,894

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Supervaluationism and Fara's paradox of higher-order vagueness.Pablo Cobreros - 2011 - In Paul Égré & Nathan Klinedinst, Vagueness and language use. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Supervaluationism and Classical Logic.Pablo Cobreros - 2011 - In Rick Nouwen, Robert van Rooij, Uli Sauerland & Hans-Christian Schmitz, Vagueness in Communication. Springer.
Williams on Supervaluationism and Logical Revisionism.Nicholas K. Jones - 2011 - Journal of Philosophy 108 (11):633-641.
Précis of Vagueness. [REVIEW]Timothy Williamson - 1997 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57 (4):921.
Vagueness and Ambivalence.Barry Lam - 2013 - Acta Analytica 28 (3):359-379.
Vagueness and the Philosophy of Perception.Ryan Perkins - 2012 - Dissertation, University of Oxford

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
301 (#99,205)

6 months
29 (#125,025)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Rosanna Keefe
University of Sheffield

Citations of this work

Nonclassical Minds and Indeterminate Survival.J. Robert G. Williams - 2014 - Philosophical Review 123 (4):379-428.
Supervaluations and the Strict-Tolerant Hierarchy.Brian Porter - 2021 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 51 (6):1367-1386.
Vagueness: Subvaluationism.Pablo Cobreros - 2013 - Philosophy Compass 8 (5):472-485.
Gesture projection and cosuppositions.Philippe Schlenker - 2018 - Linguistics and Philosophy 41 (3):295-365.
Vagueness, Incomparability, and the Collapsing Principle.Erik Carlson - 2013 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16 (3):449-463.

View all 18 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Vagueness, truth and logic.Kit Fine - 1975 - Synthese 30 (3-4):265-300.
General semantics.David K. Lewis - 1970 - Synthese 22 (1-2):18--67.
Vagueness.Delia Graff & Timothy Williamson (eds.) - 1994 - London and New York: Ashgate.
Vagueness.Timothy Williamson - 1994 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46 (4):589-601.
Theories of Vagueness.Rosanna Keefe - 2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

View all 33 references / Add more references