For those who are keen to know more about the sorites paradox - here is an essay I wrote about the fuzzy view of vagueness, which attempts to solve the problem. Be warned - it’s long and long winded.
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Monthly Archives: March 2007
The Fuzzy View of Vagueness
31-Mar-07Paradoxes cause confusion at the roots of all our thinking. A paradox arises when we start with premises we believe to be obviously true, proceed by a process of reasoning that we also think incontrovertible, and end up with something we believe to be obviously false. Sometimes such thought experiments don’t end up in a full paradox – but puzzle the mind nonetheless.
We ponder over such problems because of a worry that they give us reason to doubt our most trusted source of knowledge – reason itself. At the very least – they are a fun way to baffle ourselves and confuse others at parties.
Here are five great puzzles/paradoxes to tickle the mind:
Choice vs Interest Theories of Rights
27-Mar-07Choice and interest theories of rights both seek to clarify our intuitions and use of the term ‘rights’, by offering differing clarifications of its meaning. In so doing, both theories favour certain aspects of the intuitive picture, while neglecting others. This essay will provide an exposition of both theories, outlining the major points of disagreement […]
Australia Abusing its Anti-Terror Laws?
25-Mar-07Rumours are circulating on the University of Sydney campus? that law enforcement agencies are using the anti-terrorism legislation to suppress and intimidate students.? I’ve got to be careful here.? Rumours are rumours and I don’t want to accuse anyone of something that isn’t true.? Hence I’m framing this post as a […]
Adam Curtis does not shy away from controversial subject matters in his documentaries, nor does he hold back from taking a particular point of view, eschewing the idea of a neutral narrator. In his 2002, 4 part documentary series ‘The Century of the Self’ he explores the influence of public relations techniques developed by Edward […]
Three Dog Night - by Peter Goldsworthy
19-Mar-07Peter Goldsworthy is one of the big names of the Australian Literary Scene, however, it’s difficult for someone not subscribed to the major magazines to find any comment about his latest book - Three Dog Night. I just could not find any reviews at all through a search on google (as opposed to ‘The Bride […]
Whether or not the decision to publish this book anonymously was a genuine approach by the author to achieve authenticity of expression (as stated by the author) or merely a clever marketing technique designed to attract interest in the mystique of the author’s own personality (a mysterious leak to the press as to the true […]
It’s always with a certain degree of relief that I find myself coming back to Hemingway. I’ve usually read some impossibly metaphoric and muddied work beforehand - something that is always keen to tell you what to think, expositionally, and yet the clarity of such thought being far from adequate. The relief in Hemingway, at […]