Vagueness

This week we are discussing Vagueness.

"If you cut one head off of a two-headed man, have you decapitated him? What is the maximum height of a short man? When does a fertilized egg develop into a person? These questions are impossible to answer because they involve absolute borderline cases. In the vast majority of cases, the unknowability of a borderline statement is only relative to a given means of settling the issue. For instance, a boy may count as a borderline case of ‘obese’ because people cannot tell whether he is obese just by looking at him. His curious mother could try to settle the matter by calculating her son’s body mass index. The formula is to divide his weight (in kilograms) by the square of his height (in meters). If the value exceeds 30, this test counts him as obese. The calculation will itself leave some borderline cases. The mother could then use a weight-for-height chart. These charts are not entirely decisive because they do not reflect the ratio of fat to muscle, whether the child has large bones, and so on. The boy will only count as an absolute borderline case of ‘obese’ if no possible method of inquiry could settle whether he is obese. When we reach this stage, we start to suspect that our uncertainty is due to the concept of obesity rather than to our limited means of testing for obesity."

See the SEP: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vagueness/

If it's your first time, don't feel obligated to read anything in advance, but bring your iPad or tablet, if you have one. All are welcome, if philosophically inclined. Try to arrive early. We start the discussion at 12:15pm, exactly. Here's a little something about skepticism and something more on other philosophical topics. We are closer to Hawthorne than to Kuhn.

If the meeting is full, join the waitlist and check again on Sunday morning. You may find a spot has opened up. Also, see what meetings are coming up in the weeks ahead.