Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T21:39:54.261Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Moral Indeterminacy and Vagueness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2023

Martin Peterson
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
Get access

Summary

Moral indeterminacy is not the same thing as moral vagueness. In this chapter, I reserve the term “indeterminacy” for phenomena that are indeterminate but not vague. The term “vagueness” is reserved for entities that are susceptible to a sorites series. The distinction between moral indeterminacy and vagueness mirrors an analogous distinction between two versions of the gradualist hypothesis. According to the first, some acts are somewhat right and somewhat wrong in the indeterministic sense; according to the second, some acts are somewhat right and somewhat wrong because they display moral vagueness. These hypotheses must be kept apart because they sometimes entail different practical verdicts. The first aim of this chapter is to clarify the notions of moral indeterminacy and vagueness that are central to these two versions of the gradualist hypothesis. The second aim is to discuss reasons for believing that morality is vague, or indeterminate but not vague, or both, and whether we should understand all these views as ontic, semantic, or epistemic theories.

Type
Chapter
Information
Ethics in the Gray Area
A Gradualist Theory of Right and Wrong
, pp. 101 - 119
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×