Not Exactly: In Praise of Vagueness

How warm is a 'warm day'?

Where should we draw the 'poverty line'?

Are you the same person as you were yesterday?

None of these questions can be given a clear-cut answer. Any response is likely to start with 'That depends ?'. We operate in a world full of continuous variation, of fuzziness and borderline cases, using language that is intrinsically vague. In this fascinating exploration, cutting across philosophy, mathematical logic, linguistics, and artificial intelligence, Kees van Deemter considers the challenges and applications of vagueness, showing how vagueness is not only characteristically human, but frequently useful too.