Williamson on Vagueness and Context‐Dependence

Abstract

Several philosophers offer explanations of linguistic vagueness by appealing to the referential context‐dependence of vague terms. Timothy Williamson argues pre‐emptively that any such approach must fail, on the grounds that context‐dependence is neither necessary nor sufficient for vagueness. He supports this claim, in turn, by example. This paper argues that his examples fail to show that context‐dependence is either unnecessary or insufficient for vagueness, and hence that he has failed by his own lights to show that it cannot explain vagueness.