Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T08:23:13.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Rejection of Excluded Middle and the Sorites Paradox

from Part I - Solutions to the Sorites Paradox

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2019

Sergi Oms
Affiliation:
Universitat de Barcelona
Elia Zardini
Affiliation:
University of Lisbon
Get access

Summary

The chapter presents a traditional model of partially defined predicates, its rejection of bivalence, and its responses to versions of the Sorites. An intractable problem with the model is then identified as arising from three assumptions: (i) the language containing the predicates is spoken by a vast but ill-defined community, (ii) the linguistic rules make fine-grained distinctions that go unnoticed by speakers, and (iii) the rules are abstracted from uses of the predicates. Progress, it is argued, requires dispensing with (i), embracing a plurality of micro-languages, and using them to construct perfected versions of (ii) and (iii). The resulting model defines the micro-language centered on an individual x at a time in terms of the dispositions of x to affirm or deny certain predicates of objects. Coordinated languages constructed from micro-languages centered on different individuals in a communicative situation allow one to assign assertive contents to uses of sentences. Given this, one can show how precise, knowable (though unknown) demarcations between items in the range of a vague predicate are determined. The technique, available to both defenders and opponents of excluded middle, can be used to reconstruct attractive responses to the Sorites, without some important defects.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Sorites Paradox , pp. 118 - 134
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×