DOI

The article presents a careful analysis of the idea of the "open texture" of language and vagueness of concepts in the way that they were formulated by Friedrich Waismann as well as related problems of verification. It shows that empirical statements are not conclusively verifiable for, at least, the open texture of the terms involved. We cannot conclusively verify statements in which empirical concepts are used, because we cannot define these concepts in an exhaustive way due to their open texture. The author proposes interpreting the open texture as a possibility of vagueness; vagueness can be remedied by giving more accurate rules, the open texture cannot.
Translated title of the contributionThe "open texture" of language, vagueness, and context principle
Original languageRussian
Pages (from-to)25-32
JournalВЕСТНИК ТОМСКОГО ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА. ФИЛОСОФИЯ. СОЦИОЛОГИЯ. ПОЛИТОЛОГИЯ
Issue number44
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2018
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • open texture, vagueness, verification, context principle, natural language

ID: 48883981