Maarten Maartensz:    Philosophical Dictionary | Filosofisch Woordenboek                      

 V - Vagueness

 

Vagueness: Not being clearly distinguished or distinguishable. Many terms for properties and things (adjectives, nouns) are vague in that there are some cases for which it is just not clear whether the term applies or not. For example: When ceases a man to be a child? After which amount of hairloss is one bald? What amount of money makes a man rich? Similarly, as with the ages of man, there are many pairs of terms, like stupidity and intelligence, or young and old, or poor and rich, with vague borders and intermediates. There are a number of logical problems connected with vagueness, some of which go back to Antiquity, and there are also relations to the differential and integral calculus and the concepts of limits and infinitesimals, and to topology.

See also:

Literature:

Zinoviev

 Original: Jul 10, 2005                                                Last edited: 12 December 2011.   Top