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Acceptable Contradictions: Pragmatics or Semantics? A Reply to Cobreros et al.

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Abstract

Naive speakers find some logical contradictions acceptable, specifically borderline contradictions involving vague predicates such as Joe is and isn’t tall. In a recent paper, Cobreros et al. (J Philos Logic, 2012) suggest a pragmatic account of the acceptability of borderline contradictions. We show, however, that the pragmatic account predicts the wrong truth conditions for some examples with disjunction. As a remedy, we propose a semantic analysis instead. The analysis is close to a variant of fuzzy logic, but conjunction and disjunction are interpreted as intensional operators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Sam Alxatib

  2. Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University, 106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Peter Pagin

  3. Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Schützenstr. 18, 10117, Berlin, Germany

    Uli Sauerland

Authors
  1. Sam Alxatib
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  2. Peter Pagin
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  3. Uli Sauerland
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Correspondence to Uli Sauerland.

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Alxatib, S., Pagin, P. & Sauerland, U. Acceptable Contradictions: Pragmatics or Semantics? A Reply to Cobreros et al.. J Philos Logic 42, 619–634 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-012-9241-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-012-9241-7

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