These degrees go to eleven: fuzzy logics and gradable predicates

0563602 - ÚI 2023 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Cintula, Petr - Grimau, Berta - Noguera, C. - Smith, N.J.J.
These degrees go to eleven: fuzzy logics and gradable predicates.
Synthese. Roč. 200, č. 6 (2022), č. článku 445. ISSN 0039-7857. E-ISSN 1573-0964
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA18-00113S
EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 101007627 - MOSAIC
Institutional support: RVO:67985807 ; RVO:67985556
Keywords : Vagueness * Fuzzy logic * Formal semantics * Gradable adjectives * Sorites paradox
OECD category: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology; Applied mathematics (UTIA-B)
Impact factor: 1.5, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03909-2

In the literature on vagueness one finds two very different kinds of degree theory. The dominant kind of account of gradable adjectives in formal semantics and linguistics is built on an underlying framework involving bivalence and classical logic: its degrees are not degrees of truth. On the other hand, fuzzy logic based theories of vagueness—largely absent from the formal semantics literature but playing a significant role in both the philosophical literature on vagueness and in the contemporary logic literature—are logically nonclassical and give a central role to the idea of degrees of truth. Each kind of degree theory has a strength: the classical kind allows for rich and subtle analyses of the comparative form of gradable adjectives and of various types of gradable precise adjectives, while the fuzzy kind yields a compelling solution to the sorites paradox. This paper argues that the fuzzy kind of theory can match the benefits of the classical kind and hence that the burden is on the latter to match the advantages of the former. In particular, we develop a new version of the fuzzy logic approach that—unlike existing fuzzy theories—yields a compelling analysis of the comparative as well as an adequate account of gradable precise predicates, while still retaining the advantage of genuinely solving the sorites paradox.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0335529