Vagueness in Communication, Thinking, and Reality
Is vagueness a feature of language, a feature of reality, or a feature of both? Vagueness permeates our communication, our thinking, and our reality. Each of these are interrelated areas that it will be useful to examine separately and then bring back together. The problem of what is and is not vague and how to handle that has significance ranging from everyday actions to technical philosophy and science. Communication has a variety of purposes and therefore different types of statements and tones. Let’s take a common interaction in the imperative tone, “Go to the store and buy some milk.” This is a normal occurrence that is usually workable for most people. However, there is a level of vagueness in the terms that usually isn’t addressed, because in a given context it isn’t necessary. If the two people know each other and know the area then these potential variables have already been worked out at some point. Let’s assume that the two people don’t know each other and that they don’t k