tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post1766000860460015995..comments2024-03-28T19:56:42.305-05:00Comments on Alexander Pruss's Blog: The sharpness of the Platonic realmAlexander R Prusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-52367186445257381092016-12-18T18:22:49.242-06:002016-12-18T18:22:49.242-06:00If there are meaningful vague predicates, there ar...If there are meaningful vague predicates, there are going to be necessary truths that capture their meaning, and those truths will be vague. "People with less than X hairs per square inch are bald" "people under age Y are children" "People over Z height are tall" etc.<br /><br />So either give up your (purely aesthetic) Platonic intuition, or give up the idea of meaningful vague predicates.Heath Whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13535886546816778688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-35959430885215323412016-12-18T11:56:24.298-06:002016-12-18T11:56:24.298-06:00Although terms like limit and convergence in mathe...Although terms like limit and convergence in mathematics are vague in certain ways, I would hope they are not vague in quite the way a term like "little" might be, where different people might have very different senses of the word in similar context.<br /><br /><br />Williamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09292602256213936359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-4526906726046220062016-12-16T21:29:32.372-06:002016-12-16T21:29:32.372-06:00I don't think you will ever be able to underst...I don't think you will ever be able to understand vagueness as long as you insist that some truths are "definite" truths in such a way that they are vague in no way. Because if that is the case, then it would have to be absolutely definite when a statement stopped being that kind and started being the vague kind. Which ultimately would mean that vagueness could not exist; this is why all your arguments tend to this conclusion.<br /><br />The truth is that all truths are vague truths, because they are expressed by words, which are intrinsically vague in virtue of being words.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-12663029942685849562016-12-16T13:04:01.001-06:002016-12-16T13:04:01.001-06:00I think the mathematical concept of an open neighb...I think the mathematical concept of an open neighborhood or open ball in topology allows a kind of Platonic vagueness to be necessary to the proper use of many definitions and concepts.<br /><br />This can be used to apply classical logic to vagueness in other, more empirical realms of knowledge.<br /><br />Williamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12533263841520213358noreply@blogger.com