The revenge of the heap and how to avoid It

Prof Susanne Bobzien (Oxford University)

Abstract: Many prima facie solutions of the Sorites paradox face a revenge problem, that is, the recurrence of the paradox at a different level. The most notorious case is that of higher-order vagueness, where each added order leads to a new Sorites and the assumption of infinite orders to the so-called higher-order vagueness paradoxes. In my talk I aim to show (i) how these paradoxes result from the confusion of two paradigms of borderline cases: higher-order vagueness (using iterated modalities) and borderline nestings (using mixed-order non-empty predicates); (ii) how, once the characteristics of borderline nestings are removed from the description of higher-order vagueness, the paradoxes disappear.  For this purpose, I introduce the -- perhaps only -- coherent theory of higher-order vagueness, i.e. that of columnar higher-order vagueness and explain its basic characteristics. Finally I provide the basics of a family of formal semantics that manifest the infrastructure for these revenge-evading theories, starting with a bivalent normal modal system (or Kripke semantics) and hinting how this could be modified to trivalent Kripke semantics, and/or to systems of three-valued logics with a bivalent modal fragment.

Autumn 2013 Programme
http://philosophy.sas.ac.uk/LEMAutumn2013(with links to abstracts)
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Tue 22 Oct

Yuri Cath(University of East Anglia)

Revisionary Intellectualism and Gettier

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Tue 5 Nov

Susanne Bobzien(All Souls College, Oxford)

The revenge of the heap and how to avoid It

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Tue 19 Nov

Brian Rabern(University of Edinburgh)

In defense of Tarski on variables

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Tue 3 Dec

Anthony Booth(University of Sussex)

Why is belief involuntary?

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Venue: All talks begin at 5.00pm in Room 243, second floor, Senate House, Malet Street, WC1 (except 5 Nov, Room 246).
Directions to Senate House: http://www.london.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/home/map.pdf

If you would like to have dinner with the speaker on the evening of their talk please contact the LEM convenor, Dr Corine Besson: [email protected]

Poster: https://philosophy.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/LEM%20Poster%20Autumn%202013.pdf

Co-convenors: Dr Corine Besson (Sussex) and Robert Bassett