Does the Collapsing Principle Rule Out Borderline Cases?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Does the Collapsing Principle Rule Out Borderline Cases?

AU - Gustafsson, Carl Johan Eric

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Cambridge University Press.

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - If ‘F’ is a predicate, then ‘Fer than’ or ‘more F than’ is a corresponding comparative relational predicate. Concerning such comparative relations, John Broome's Collapsing Principle states that, for any x and y, if it is false that y is Fer than x and not false that x is Fer than y, then it is true that x is Fer than y. Luke Elson has recently put forward two counter-examples to this principle, allegedly showing that it yields contradictions if there are borderline cases. In this article, I argue that the Collapsing Principle does not rule out borderline cases, but I also argue that the principle is implausible.

AB - If ‘F’ is a predicate, then ‘Fer than’ or ‘more F than’ is a corresponding comparative relational predicate. Concerning such comparative relations, John Broome's Collapsing Principle states that, for any x and y, if it is false that y is Fer than x and not false that x is Fer than y, then it is true that x is Fer than y. Luke Elson has recently put forward two counter-examples to this principle, allegedly showing that it yields contradictions if there are borderline cases. In this article, I argue that the Collapsing Principle does not rule out borderline cases, but I also argue that the principle is implausible.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046010204&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/S0953820818000079

DO - 10.1017/S0953820818000079

M3 - Review article

VL - 30

SP - 483

EP - 492

JO - Utilitas

JF - Utilitas

SN - 0953-8208

IS - 4

ER -