Abstract
Proponents of supervaluationism claim super-truth, i. e., truth on every admissible precisification, is identical to truth or, at least, is a suitable truth proxy. I object that super-truth is neither identical to nor a suitable proxy for truth. I argue that to claim a statement is super-true is simply to maintain that a certain counterfactual holds, and that a claim is true, counterfactually, is no reason to treat it as true. I further argue that, with super-truth undermined, Roy Sorensen’s objection that supervaluationism cannot accommodate vague directly referential terms presents supervaluationism’s defenders with a significant challenge.
References
Evans, G. 1978. “Can There Be Vague Objects.” Analysis 38:208.10.1093/analys/38.4.208Search in Google Scholar
Fine, K. 1997. “Vagueness, Truth and Logic.” In Vagueness: A Reader, edited by R. Keefe and P. Smith. Cambridge, 119–50. MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/7064.003.0011Search in Google Scholar
Fodor, J., and E. Lepore. 1996. “What Cannot Be Evaluated Cannot Be Evaluated and It Cannot Be Supervalued Either.” Journal of Philosophy 93:516–35.10.5840/jphil1996931013Search in Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1973. Counterfactuals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1986. On the Plurality of Worlds. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1988. “Vague Identity: Evan’s Misunderstood.” Analysis 48:128–30.10.1093/analys/48.3.128Search in Google Scholar
Sorensen, R. 2000. “Direct Reference and Vague Identity.” Philosophical Topics 28:177–94.10.5840/philtopics200028123Search in Google Scholar
Weatherson, B. 2003. “Many Many Problems.” Philosophical Quarterly 53:481–501.10.1111/1467-9213.00327Search in Google Scholar
©2016 by De Gruyter