[SydPhil] Wednesday Philosophy Seminar

[Samuel Baron]

Dear all,

Please note that Laura Schroeter will not be talking at the University of Sydney, on Wed 17 May. We will, instead, be hearing from Nicholas J. J. Smith. Title and abstract below. Location of the talk and further details can be found on the Sydney Philosophy Seminar Blog: http://usydseminars.blogspot.com.au/.

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Nicholas J. J. Smith (University of Sydney)

Title

One Bald Man ... Two Bald Men ... THREE Bald Men: Aahh Aahh Aahh Aahh Aaaahhhh!

Abstract

In the context of classical (crisp, precise) sets, there is a familiar connection between the notions of counting, ordering and cardinality.  When it comes to vague collections, the connection has not been kept in central focus: there have been numerous proposals regarding the cardinality of vague collections, but these proposals have tended to be discussed in isolation from issues of counting and ordering.  My main concern in this paper is to draw focus back onto the connection between these notions.  I propose a natural generalisation to the vague case of the familiar process of counting precise collections.  I then discuss the relationships between this process of counting and various notions of ordering and cardinality for vague sets.  Some existing views concerning the cardinality of vague collections fit better than others with my proposal about how to count the members of such a collection.  In particular, the idea that we should approach cardinality via certain formulas of a logical language -- which has been prominent in the recent literature -- is less attractive than other existing proposals.

DR SAMUEL BARON | Postdoctoral Research Fellow
School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Room N494 | Quadrangle Building A14
The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
T +61 2 9114 0633  | F +61 2 9351 3918
E samuel.baron at sydney.edu.au<mailto:carolyne.carter at sydney.edu.au>
W https://sites.google.com/site/sambaronphilosophy/
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