Vagueness and Indeterminacy
Stephen P. Schiffer · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2016
Crucial to Schiffer’s approach to vagueness is his distinction between vagueness-related partial belief (VPB), which doesn’t conform to the axioms of classical probability theory, and standard partial belief (SPB), which does conform to those axioms. He uses the notion of VPB to define the notion of a borderline proposition and the validity of vague arguments, and to explain the relation between indeterminacy and knowledgeability. The current chapter responds to critical remarks in the contributions by Edgington, Field, and Wright concerning the relation between VPB and the knowledgeability of borderline propositions, the laws determining the formation of complex VPBs and the interaction of VPBs and SPBs, and the use of VPB to define borderline propositions and the validity of vague arguments.