Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome | |||
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Sorites: the term is derived from the Greek word soros for pile and denotes the difficulty of specifying the point at which the expression “pile” can no longer be applied because the amount of the substance concentrated on the pile is reduced. A similar problem relates to the delineation of color shades. See also vagueness, limits, indeterminacy, perception, chain closure, paradoxes._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
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Crispin Wright on Sorites - Dictionary of Arguments
II 229 Sorites/color/Wright: Tradition: small changes need to be survived by the predicate. Problem: in the end everything is orange and simultaneously everything is red - Suppose f is a term that is related to the predicate F in a way that: any object that can be applied to the F can be transformed into one where the predicate F cannot be applied, simply by performing a sufficient change in terms of f. Term f: corresponds to E.g. age in the case of childhood, color, in the case of "red", number of hairs in the case of "bald", etc. II 234 Tradition: according to it, we must regard our color predicates as nontransitive. >Transitivity, >Color words, >Definitions, >Definability, >Vagueness. II 236 Tradition: demands double observability of color predicates 1. as a consequence of our general concept of the use conditions and 2. from the character of our learning (training). >Learning, >Observability. >Conditions._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
WrightCr I Crispin Wright Truth and Objectivity, Cambridge 1992 German Edition: Wahrheit und Objektivität Frankfurt 2001 WrightCr II Crispin Wright "Language-Mastery and Sorites Paradox" In Truth and Meaning, G. Evans/J. McDowell, Oxford 1976 WrightGH I Georg Henrik von Wright Explanation and Understanding, New York 1971 German Edition: Erklären und Verstehen Hamburg 2008 |