Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T02:33:42.179Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Vagueness and Logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Carl G. Hempel
Carl G. Hempel*
Affiliation:
New York
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

As is rather generally admitted today, the terms of our language in scientific as well as in everyday use, are not completely precise, but exhibit a more or less high degree of vagueness. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the consequences of this circumstance for a series of questions which belong to the field of logic. First of all, the meaning and the logical status of the concept of vagueness will be analyzed; then we will try to find out whether logical terms are free from vagueness, and whether vagueness has an influence upon the validity of the customary principles of logic; finally, the possibilities of diminishing the vagueness of scientific concepts by suitable logical devices will be briefly dealt with.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , April 1939 , pp. 163 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Black, Max [1] Vagueness. An exercise in logical analysis. Philosophy of Science 4 (1937), 427–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnap, R. [1] Philosophy and Logical Syntax. Kegan Paul, London, 1935.Google Scholar
[2] The Logical Syntax of Language. New York and London, 1937.Google Scholar
[3] Physikalische Begriffsbildung. Braun, Karlsruhe, 1926.Google Scholar
[4] Foundations of Logic and Mathematics. Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Vol. I, No. 3. The University of Chicago Press. Forthcoming 1939.Google Scholar
Hempel, C. G. and Oppenheim, P. [1] Der Typusbegriff im Lichte der neuen Logik. Sijthoff, Leiden, 1936.Google Scholar
Kokoszynska, M. [1] Ueber den absoluten Wahrheitsbegriff und einige andere semantische Begriffe. Erkenntnis 6, 1936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, C. W. [1] Foundations of the Theory of Signs. International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Vol. I, No. 2. The University of Chicago Press, 1938.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, P. [1] Von Klassenbegriffen zu Ordnungsbegriffen. Travaux du IX Congrès International de Philosophie, Paris 1937.—Hermann et Cie, Paris, 1937.Google Scholar
Tarski, A. [1] Der Wahrheitsbegriff in den formalisierten Sprachen. Studia Philosophica 1 (1935), 261–405.Google Scholar