Lewis idea is that ambiguous statements are true when they come out true under all disambiguations. This paper presents f, substructural logic designed to treat vagueness. What is the difference between verbal and factual disputes. Clarity clarity in language definitions vagueness and. Vagueness is commonly demonstrated by the sorites paradox. In other words, just as dead metaphors are to the right of productive ambiguity and occur when theres denotation but little connotation, so vagueness lies to the left of generative ambiguity and, as macfarlane would put it, happens due to semantic indecision. This video is part of our introduction to logic series and explains what ambiguity and vagueness are. What is the difference between ambiguity and vagueness. Critical thinking vagueness and ambiguity by ben matthews. We will read the first chapter of rosanna keefes theories of vagueness. Disputes arising out of either ambiguity or vagueness of words are verbal disputes. Jun 07, 20 in the electures ambiguity and vagueness, prof.
The term ambiguity is often used indiscriminately in the. Ambiguity, polysemy and vagueness are terms used in cognitive semantics referring to different instances of plurality of meaning. A model of ambiguity and vagueness in clinical practice. Humour plays off ambiguity, while classical logic falters over it.
In the late 1960s and early 70s, fuzzy logic was introduced into the philosophic world. For law pragmatic vagueness seems of specific import 2. So if vagueness is incompatible with classical logic, classical logic is ultimately inapplicable to ordinary thought and language. Vagueness makes it seem as if a minuscule difference between two things cant cross the threshold from correct application of an expression to incorrect application of an expression. Vagueness, truth and logic1 this paper began with the question what is the correct logic of vague ness. In mathematics and logic, ambiguity can be considered to be an instance of the logical concept of underdeterminationfor example, leaves open what the value of x iswhile its opposite is a selfcontradiction, also called inconsistency, paradoxicalness, or oxymoron, or in mathematics an inconsistent systemsuch as, which has no solution. Introduction university of the saarland, germany at the beginning of naturallanguage semantics as a formal discipline, there was the insight that the notion of meaning and the notion of truth are narrowly related. Introductory logic glossary of key terms this glossary includes terms that are defined in the text, in the lesson and on the page noted. Use of one or more vague terms typically renders it impossible to establish the truth or falsity of the sentences in which they appear. In general, vagueness cannot be avoided as this is the nature of life its just that the government takes advantage of vagueness more than other entities do and the consequences are so great. The logic of vagueness dirk pattinson australian national university canbera, dec 20 dirk pattinson anu lukasiewicz logic canbera, dec 20 1 27. Premises and conclusions are propositions which express just one meaning. There is no doubt that vagueness and ambiguity are related phenomena. Ambiguity when considering whether a set of sentence is consistent, we need to remember that sentences can be ambiguous.
The case against fuzzy logic revisited 187 of kamp 8 and to a lesser extent that of fine 4. A word is vague when there are borderline cases which might or might not fit in the definition and it isnt easy to tell how to classify them. Although people often confuse vagueness and ambiguity, they are being vague when they do. This will clarify the nature of the philosophical challenge posed by vagueness. Vagueness, ambiguity, and pragmatism one of my favourite things about the web is the ease at which serendipity occurs. This led to the further question what are the correct truthcondi tions for a vague language. It is thus an attribute of any idea or statement whose intended meaning cannot be definitively resolved according to a rule or process with a finite number of steps. As for the origins and accounts of vagueness the different approaches are sorted into logic, ontic, epistemic and semantic accounts with epis. Elsevier journal of pragmatics 29 1998 31 fuzziness vagueness generality ambiguity qiao zhang asian studies, school of languages, university of otago, po box 56, dunedin, new zealand received march 996. The difference between ambiguity and vagueness is a matter of whether two or more meanings associated with a given phonological form are distinct ambiguous, or united as nondistinguished subcases of a single, more general meaning vague. However, i will use independencefriendly logic to formally encode the multiple meanings within a pun. In order to express just one meaning, the sentence must contain no lexical ambiguity, no syntactic ambiguity and no vagueness. Within that overlap resides the continuum of ambiguity. In contextcountablelangen terms the difference between ambiguity and vagueness is that ambiguity is countable something liable to more than one interpretation, explanation or meaning, if that meaning etc cannot be determined from its context while vagueness is countable something which is vague, or an instance or example of vagueness.
Vagueness and ambiguity in lexical definitions although vagueness and ambiguity are often used interchangeably, the two terms are nonetheless distinct. All government operations grow on the basis of vague requirements. Ambiguity is when there is more than one clear meaning, and it is difficult to choose which meaning was intended. He also contributed to the development of modern theories of probability in the logic of chance 1867 and the principles of empirical or inductive logic 1889. Any theory of vagueness must offer some solution to this paradox. Some of the most popular theories of vagueness include supervaluationism, the degree theory of truth and the epistemic theory, and many of the available theories demand a radical rethink of classical accounts of logic.
Vagueness and ambiguity clearly a person with a person with a head like an egg is bald. In symbolic logic 1881 venn applied the insights of boole, euler, and others in developing a diagrammatic method for testing the validity of categorical syllogisms. Fuzzy logic is a class of logic that can represent ambiguity as probabilities. This chapter provides a biased overview of analyses of vagueness within linguistics. Thus the logic of vagueness is a logic for equivocators. There are at least four different vantage points from which to address the problems caused by vagueness. And some legal texts are vaguethey use concepts that have indefinite application to particular cases.
Logical fallacy informal fallacy vagueness subfallacy. Vagueness is a major part of politics and governance as will be demonstrated in the remainder of this essay. A verbal dispute can be avoided by stating the sense in which the key words are used. Sep 10, 2018 the difference between ambiguity and vagueness is a matter of whether two or more meanings associated with a given phonological form are distinct ambiguous, or united as nondistinguished subcases of a single, more general meaning vague. The rest of the paper is devoted to arguing that, in some sense, ambiguity is not necessary. This week the legal theory lexicon entry focuses on ambiguity and vagueness two important concepts for the theory of interpretation. Ambiguity is a type of meaning in which a phrase, statement or resolution is not explicitly defined, making several interpretations plausible. Some legal texts are ambiguousthey contain words or phrases that can have two or more distinct meanings. According to deane 1988 these three phenomena form a gradient between total semantic identity vagueness and total semantic distinctness p. The characteristic of words or phrases whose meaning is not determined with precision. Although vagueness and ambiguity are often used interchangeably, the two terms are nonetheless distinct.
Lesson 1 intro logic the purposes and types of definitions. Chapter 2 ambiguity and vagueness flashcards quizlet. Once the parties to the dispute make clear the sense in which they are using the terms they will realise that their disagreement is on the meaning of their terms and the. Vagueness will then be contrasted with ambiguity and generality. But logicians normally require that a statement be disambiguated before logic is applied. Vagueness and ambiguity vagueness when a definition is vague it has no specific meaning for the intended audience. Vagueness, ambiguity, and the sound ofmeaning sylvain bromhcrger 5. Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted. Handke explained and exemplified the central aspects of these two phenomena.
Ambiguity is a strategy you can use to win more negotiations but most negotiators are unsure how to employ it and when. This third electure, not only summarizes its two predecessors but. This is useful for real world situations with unknowns such as a robot that needs to navigate a busy street with. The social dilemmas raise their ugly head in every aspect of governance from voting by both citizens and representatives to rentseeking to taxation and distribution. Sep 06, 2016 although people often confuse vagueness and ambiguity, they are being vague when they do.
The purpose of lexical definitions learn religions. First, the nature of vagueness is discussed, and contrasted with notions such as ambiguity and context dependence. A statement lesson, page 91 a categorical statement of the form all s is p, also called a universal affirmative. In which sense is fuzzy logic a logic for vagueness. Vagueness, ambiguity, and underspecification manfred pinkal 1. This article explores ambiguity and vagueness in legal interpretation, and discusses other forms of indeterminacy, kinds of vagueness, and vagueness and the rule of law. Various definitions of ambiguity are critically examined and contrasted with definitions of generality and indeterminacy, concepts with which ambiguity is sometimes confused. A standard example of ambiguity is bank financial institution vs. Actually a restatement of the tarskilukasiewicz infinitevalued logics of the 1930s, one of the side benefits of fuzzy logics was claimed to be an adequate logic for vagueness. Clarity in language definitions, vagueness, and ambiguity phil 102 introduction to logic and critical thinking csu, chico clarity clarity is essential in language and logic claims are made up of words and phrases confusion is caused when the meaning of a claim lacks sufficient clarity. Fuzziness vagueness generality ambiguity sciencedirect. Weaker than lukasiewiczs infinitely valued logic, it is presented first in. A standard form of this paradox features a 2000man sequence of progressively taller men, starting with a paradigm case of a short man at one extreme, say george costanza, and at the other extreme, a paradigm case of a tall one, say kramer.
Vagueness is a characteristic of language, specifically of those words and phrases that classify or qualify objects, that is, common nouns and adjectives. For example, if we are unclear about the definition of the term child pornography, we may want to. Ambiguity and vagueness in legal interpretation by ralf. Fuzzy logic a spectrum of theoretical and practical issues. It will also give you insights into how you can use. A vague statement lacks clear and specific meaning.
In philosophy of logic, ambiguity is usually made distinct from vagueness see here for instance, and i think what you are after is vagueness as vagueness is defined as terms where there are borderline cases. As our previous video explained, logical arguments consist of premises and a conclusion. Weaker than lukasiewiczs infinitely valued logic, it is presented first in a natural deduction system, then given a. The major book in this area is timothy williamsons vagueness but also see the bibliography on the stanford site above. We take it for granted these days but occasionally wonderful things happen that make us rediscover the joy of connection. Accent lesson 34, page 265 changing the meaning of a sentence through improper emphasis.
This article outlines when you might consider evoking ambiguity as a strategy, and a few ways to use it as a backdoor to escape a negotiation thats not serving you. I will then discuss some rival theories of vagueness with an emphasis on manyvalued logic, supervaluationism and contextualism. And this sort of indeterminacy does not reduce to ambiguity. For example, go down the road a ways and then turn right is vague because a ways does not precisely explain how far one should go down the road. Borderline vagueness is reconstructed using certain modality operators.
The difference between ambiguity and vagueness is a matter of whether two or more meanings associated with a given phonological form are distinct ambiguous, or united as non. Lexical ambiguity occurs when a word in the sentence has more than one meaning. Pdf ambiguity, polysemy, and vagueness david tuggy. The philosophical discussion motivates two alternative weakenings of classical logic. It is true that soon after zadehs original paper in 1965, fuzzy logic was appliedto account for vagueness, approximators, and comparatives in natural language goguen, 1969. Fuzzy logic traditional systems of logic only handle true and false with nothing in between. One definition of ambiguity is defended as being more theoretically. Ambiguity and vagueness have been the subject of considerable attention in linguistics and philosophy 1 4, but despite the significant detrimental effect of ambiguity and vagueness on cpg adherence and implementation, these concepts have not been explored and differentiated in a medical context. Vagueness and the normativity of logic this dilemma was known, in some form or other, already to the ancient world. Given the widespread interest in ambiguity, in this paper we focus on the logic of ambiguity. The problem addressed is that of finding a sound characterization of ambiguity. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
After that, some reasons are given that could perhaps explain why vagueness is such a pervasive phenomenon in natural language. However, it is not unusual for a term to be both ambiguous and vague. Ambiguity and vagueness in legal interpretation oxford. Formalizing puns is therefore impossible, since puns have ambiguous meanings for their components. In fuzzy logic, propositional expressions have a numerical value between 0 and 1 as their meaning, and negation and conjunction are interpreted as functions mapping a sin. In chapter 1, i introduced vagueness and ambiguity together, and so far i have not attempted to distinguish them. Vagueness and ambiguity are key problems in theories of legal interpretation. Here are a few examples of vague definitions from the goldmine of pseudowisdom that is depak chopra. The first half of the paper con tains the basic material. Such a word or phrase divides the world of objects into those it applies to 1, and those to which it doesnt apply.