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The paper starts by arguing that sorites paradoxes are inclosure paradoxes, and therefore require the same sort of solution as other inclosure paradoxes, notably the paradoxes of self-reference. It then puts forward such a solution. Tolerance conditionals are argued to be material conditionals, and sorites arguments fail because of the failure of detachment for such conditionals. Soritical arguments show that a contradiction occurs somewhere down the length of the sorites statements, though they do not locate where. The final part of the paper considers higher-order vagueness, and argues that it is essentially the same as extended paradoxes of self-reference, to be handled in the same way, by constructing a single 'soritically closed" language.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-4438-7_20

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