Vagueness and the Laws of Metaphysics

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 95 (1):66-89 (2017)
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Abstract

This is a paper about the nature of metaphysical laws and their relation to the phenomenon of vagueness. Metaphysical laws are introduced as analogous to natural laws, and metaphysical indeterminism is modeled on causal indeterminacy. This kind of indeterminacy is then put to work in developing a novel theory of vagueness and a solution to the sorites paradox.

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Ryan Wasserman
Western Washington University

Citations of this work

Debunking Arguments and Metaphysical Laws.Jonathan Barker - 2020 - Philosophical Studies 177 (7):1829-1855.
Against Purity.Jonathan Barker - 2023 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 9.
Contingent Grounding.Nathaniel Baron-Schmitt - 2021 - Synthese 199 (1-2):4561-4580.
Indeterminacy: Deep but not Rock Bottom.Cristian Mariani - 2020 - Analytic Philosophy 63 (1):62-71.

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References found in this work

Ethics without principles.Jonathan Dancy - 2004 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Vagueness.Timothy Williamson - 1994 - New York: Routledge.
Metaphysical Dependence: Grounding and Reduction.Gideon Rosen - 2010 - In Bob Hale & Aviv Hoffmann (eds.), Modality: Metaphysics, Logic, and Epistemology. Oxford University Press. pp. 109-135.
Knowledge and Its Limits.Timothy Williamson - 2000 - Philosophy 76 (297):460-464.
Against Grounding Necessitarianism.Alexander Skiles - 2015 - Erkenntnis 80 (4):717-751.

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