Greetings all, This Monday, 1.00-2.30 in the philosophy common room Zach Weber, Usyd, will talk to us about A Paraconsistent Model of Vagueness.
Abstract This paper uses results from non-classical set theory to model vague phenomenon. The sorites paradox is that, hard as it is to believe, vague predicates do have sharp boundaries. One reason for our incredulity is captured in the very reasonable question: If there are exact cutoffs, why can't we uniquely identify them? An answer is that the boundaries of vague predicates are inconsistent, which has recently been argued by linking the sorites paradox to the paradoxes of self-reference from set theory and logic; if this is right, then vagueness requires paraconsistent treatment. I outline a theory of wellorderings in a paraconsistent setting and produce a model that shows why there can exist exact cutoffs that nevertheless are not uniquely identifiable. Paradox-appropriate reasoning about inconsistent borderlines naturally captures and explains the paradox. See you all there... Dr. Kristie Miller Australian Research Council Post-doctoral Fellow School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry and The Centre for Time The University of Sydney Sydney, Australia Room 411, A18 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: (work) 02 9036 9663 Ph: (mobile) 0432 275 286 http://homepage.mac.com/centre.for.time/KristieMiller/Kristie/Home%20Page.html _______________________________________________ SydPhil mailing list [email protected] List Info: http://lists.arts.usyd.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil NEW LIST ARCHIVE: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
