Vagueness, Open texture and Computational dialectics
Pierre St-Vincent, Daniel Poulin, Paul Bratley
In this paper we are seeking general definitions of vagueness. They have much to do with dialectical reasoning since we are interested in vagueness caused by differing opinions, or points of view, about the definition of concepts. After giving three definitions for vagueness we sketch ways of choosing meaning for vague concepts, using “direct democracy”.
In this context we also define open texture and a related concept, porosity.
I am currently working on my Ph.D. thesis at the University of Montreal under the direction of Paul Bratley, of the Département d’informatique et de recherche opérationnelle, and Daniel Poulin of the Centre de recherche en droit public. Our team’s main subject of research is legal interpretation with differing points of view to reproduce the adversarial dimension in legal reasoning . This paper is an offspring of that work.
Download/View PDF HERE.