Sorensen on Vagueness and Contradiction

Abstract

This chapter discusses some themes from Roy Sorensen's book Vagueness and Contradiction. While agreeing with Sorensen that the major premise in a Sorites argument must be false, it rejects the consequences that Sorensen draws from this: that vague predicates have sharp boundaries, and that the phenomenon is to be explained in terms of 'truthmaker gaps'. It is argued that 'gappy' theories of a variety of kinds, including McGee and McLaughlin's theory, misrepresent the phenomenon of vagueness. Further, some of the problems Sorensen raises disappear on a degree-theoretic approach to vagueness.