Vagueness (Problems of Philosophy) [Paperback]

Timothy Williamson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0415139805 | ISBN-13: 978-0415139809 | Edition: New edition

If you keep removing single grains of sand from a heap, when is it no longer a heap? From discussions of the heap paradox in classical Greece, to modern formal approaches like fuzzy logic, Timothy Williamson traces the history of the problem of vagueness. He argues that standard logic and formal semantics apply even to vague languages and defends the controversial, realist view that vagueness is a form of ignorance - there really is a grain of sand whose removal turns a heap into a non-heap, but we can never know exactly which one it is.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Vagueness provides a copmlete and lucid account of one of the hottest topics in the philosophy of language and the philosophy of logic . . . His effort drives epistemicism to a new level of depth and distinction.
–Roy Sorenson, New York University

Nothing should henceforth be written on vagueness which fails to learn from this book. It should not be read only for its contribution to vagueness, but also for what it says about knowledge; for the purity of its style. . . and as an example of philosophy at its best.
–Mark R. Sainsbury, British Journal of the Philosophy of Science

About the Author

Timothy Williamson is a Fellow of University College, Oxford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; New edition edition (May 9, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415139805
• ISBN-13: 978-0415139809
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #285,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat outdated, August 25, 2005

By 

G.D. (Norway) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vagueness (Problems of Philosophy) (Paperback)

Despite the occasionally highly technical nature of the subject matter he discusses, Williamson's oeuvre is among the most insightful, readable and accessible in current philosophy. As such, it should be of value to both students and professionals.

Despite this, "Vagueness" cannot be given an unreserved recommendation. Of its three rather sharply delineated parts, the first, surveying the history of the subject matter, is overlong and only intermittingly of any interest, and the third, presenting his own, epistemic position, far more profoundly developed in "Knowledge and its Limits" (by comparison, the presentation in "Vagueness" seems sketchy and uses a lot of pages to say very little). The middle part, however, discussing semantic approaches to the question of vagueness, is valuable, and his attacks on fuzzy logic and superevaluationist approaches are ingenious (and, in my opinion, decisive).

To conclude, I would recommend anyone interested in the issue to read these chapters (4 and 5, I believe, not having the book in front of me), but urge more general readers to acquire "Knowledge and its Limits" instead. The latter is a stroke of genius - one of the most important contributions to philosophy since 1976. (PS: Hope readers will excuse the somewhat stilted language in t6his review - I am not a native speaker).

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Standard Text on Sorites Problems, August 12, 2000

By 

Jeremy Pierce (Syracuse, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vagueness (Problems of Philosophy) (Paperback)

If you took grains of sand away from a pile of sand, when would it cease to be a pile? The paradox of the sorites goes back to early Greek philosophers, and recent metaphysicians have revived the debate after a couple thousand years of philosophers ignoring it. According to Timothy Williamson, there is an exact point when every pile ceases to be a pile, and we could never know what that point is. If a man loses a certain number of hairs, he will be bald, and just one hair makes the difference. Williamson's epistemic view of vagueness has now come to occupy the front stage. Everyone wants to show why such a wacky view just can't be right, but no one seems to have a convincing reply to his arguments. His book covers the main views for dealing with problems of vagueness, and it goes through basic reasons deriving just from standard logic, showing why the other views are seriously inadequate unless they revise our standard logic to the point of absurdity. This book isn't easy even for trained philosophers, but it's well worth it for anyone who wants to delve into this fundamental issue in metaphysics and philosophy of language.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars But this seems different, November 30, 2010

By 

W. Jamison "William S. Jamison" (Eagle River, Ak United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vagueness (The International Research Library of Philosophy) (Hardcover)

Odd - this appears to be the only entry close in Amazon but it does not fit the text exactly. The title is the same and the author is the same but the library copy is printed 1994 and the editor is Ted Honderich and Routledge is the publisher. Sorry about being so vague but there is clearly a difference. This book is not a collection of essays but a continuous treatment of the subject by Williamson. Oddly, it also fits the other four reviews better as well, so this still seems like the right place to make this entry.