Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Indeterminacy, philosophy: An object is indeterminate if its linguistic description indicates fewer characteristics than a member of a (linguistic) community usually needs to distinguish the object from other objects. See also uncertainty of translation, vagueness, under-determinateness, inscrutability, determinateness._____________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. | |||
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Hartry Field on Indeterminacy - Dictionary of Arguments
II IX Indeterminacy/Correspondence/Lewis/Kit Fine/Field: Indeterminacy is not a big problem for the correspondence theory. >Correspondence theory. Solution: Supervaluation for vague languages. >Supervaluation. On the other hand: indeterminacy is a problem for deflationism (within one's own language) (Quine). >Deflationism. Some authors VsQuine: the assertion of an indeterminacy within one's own language is incoherent. Indeterminacy/mathematics/Field: indeterminacy exists in quantity theory, but not in number theory. >Number theory, >Quantities, >Quantities (Physics). II 180 Indeterminacy/reference/conceptual change/theory change/Field: Thesis: "Mass" was undefined and still is today. Two textbooks of the Special Relativity Theory can differ by understanding mass as "eigen mass" or "relativistic mass". Then this is either the same or different in all reference systems. >Relativity theory, >Theoretical terms, >Theory change, >Meaning change, >Reference. II 192 Indeterminacy/theory/Quine: scientific terms are meaningless outside their theory. >Immanence of truth. Truth always only in relation to a conceptual scheme. >Conceptual schemes. An objective (non-relative) concept of truth could only be attempted in terms of denotation and signification, but this cannot be done if these concepts are relative to a reference system. FieldVsQuine: Denotation is a perfectly objective relation that exists between expressions and extra-linguistic objects. >Denotation. Referential indeterminacy/Field: only shows that denotation is not well-defined in certain situations. II 271 ff Incorrect translation/Brandom/Field: E.g. Root - 1 not "i" and "-i". (+) >Reference/Brandom. II 355 Undefined/Language/McGee/Field: = Having non-standard models. Solution: Extension by predicate: e.g. "standard natural number". FieldVs: that is cheating. >Expansion/Field. New axioms with new vocabulary are not better than new axioms in the old vocabulary. >Vocabulary, >Conservativity. Cheating: If it was to be assumed that the new predicates have certain extensions. - (Still FieldVsIndeterminism) II 359 Indeterminacy/translation/system/Field: For example, assuming two speakers have different assumptions about natural numbers. Then the one must ultimately assume that the other has a wider concept than he himself. Problem: Asymmetry: A foreign concept, which is assumed to be a further, cannot be translated back into its own language. - ((s) There might be an unintended interpretation.) Field: we also have indeterminacy of the reference on each side. >Inscrutability._____________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. |
Field I H. Field Realism, Mathematics and Modality Oxford New York 1989 Field II H. Field Truth and the Absence of Fact Oxford New York 2001 Field III H. Field Science without numbers Princeton New Jersey 1980 Field IV Hartry Field "Realism and Relativism", The Journal of Philosophy, 76 (1982), pp. 553-67 In Theories of Truth, Paul Horwich, Aldershot 1994 |
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> Counter arguments against Field
> Counter arguments in relation to Indeterminacy
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-18