Indeterminacy and normative silence

Abstract

Vagueness can be narrowly conceived or broadly conceived. Paradigmatic features of narrow vagueness include its susceptibility to sorites paradoxes, as well as the presence of borderline cases (cases where we'd like to say that it's vague whether Patchy is red, for example). Borderline or vague predications are usually thought of as examples of a more general phenomenon, vagueness in the broad sense or indeterminacy. Indeterminacy has all sorts of instances that aren't obviously associated with sorites series.

Human Foreknowledge

“…Associating determinacy operators with the notion of historical possibility signals that the only source of indeterminacy to be considered is the indeterminacy of the future. This usage is not congenial to those who maintain that the indeterminacy of the future belongs to a broader conceptual category that includes other kinds of indeterminacy (as suggested in Barnes and Williams 2011 and also elaborated by Williams 2012Williams , 2014. I reiterate that I make these terminological choices primarily for convenience.…”

Nonclassical Minds and Indeterminate Survival

“…Some highlights include (Field, 2000(Field, , 2003a(Field, ,b, 2008, (Wright, 2001), (Paris, 2001), (Schiffer, 2003), (Hawthorne, 2005), (Priest, 2006), Smith (2008Smith ( , 2010, (Barnett, 2009), (MacFarlane, 2010, (Caie, 2012). See also: (Williams, 2012c(Williams, , 2014 The overall shape is what is crucial here. We have a characterization of rational belief directly in terms of truth values, a characterization of rational belief via logical constraints; and an interconnection between truth and logic.…”

“…I have argued against the general assumption that there is a single cognitive role associated with indeterminacy elsewhere (Williams, 2012c). It is striking that the Reconciliation project places such tight constraints on the cognitive role of indeterminacy, including the demand for variation for different types of indeterminate survival.…”

Decision-Theoretic Pluralism

“…Perhaps but it is similar to another such case: the vagueness of counterfactual dependence. Further, indeterminacy extends beyond vagueness (see Williams 2012) and so indeterminacy pluralism need not be about vagueness at all. ity naturally arises here.…”