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    Supervaluationism collapses under the 'higher-order vague... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Supervaluationism is a respected theory of vagueness because indecision about meaning can be both intentional and functional.

    Supervaluationism collapses under the 'higher-order vagueness' problem: the meta-language used to define 'precisifications' is itself vague.

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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.If precisifications are defined vaguely, they fail to provide determinate truth-conditions, undermining supervaluationism's core solution.
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    • 2.Higher-order vagueness is unavoidable: any attempt to sharpen 'precisification' via meta-language generates new vagueness at that level.
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    • 3.Supervaluationism claims vagueness is metalinguistic, not metaphysical, but vagueness in the meta-language contradicts this distinction.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Meta-language vagueness doesn't collapse supervaluationism if we accept that higher-order vagueness is a general feature of language, not a special problem.
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    • 2.Supervaluationism only requires that *some* precisifications exist and are consistent, not that they be perfectly sharply defined at all orders.
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    • 3.The objection conflates vagueness in how we *describe* precisifications with vagueness in the precisifications *themselves*, which are mathematical constructs.
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    Philosophy of Language1 linked

    Related

    Higher-order vagueness is unavoidable: any attempt to sharpen 'precisification' ...If precisifications are defined vaguely, they fail to provide determinate truth-...Meta-language vagueness doesn't collapse supervaluationism if we accept that hig...Supervaluationism claims vagueness is metalinguistic, not metaphysical, but vagu...
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    Supervaluationism is a respected theory of vagueness because indecision about me...Supervaluationism only requires that *some* precisifications exist and are consi...The objection conflates vagueness in how we *describe* precisifications with vag...

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