Yes, this separation is confused. “Bob is bald” is true if Bob is contained in the set of bald things, and false if he is not contained in the set of bald things. But baldness is a vague concept, its extension is a fuzzy set. The containment relation is a partial one. So Bob isn’t just either in the set or not in the set. To use binary truth values here, we have to make the simplifying assumption that “bald” is not vague. Otherwise we get fuzzy truth values which indicate the degree to which Bob is contained in the fuzzy set of bald things.
What happens when Bob can be found in or out of the set of bald things at different times or in different situations, but we might not understand (or even be well aware) of the conditions that drive Bob’s membership in the set when we’re evaluating baldness and Bob?
Can membership in baldness turn out to be some type of quantum state thing?
That might be a basis for separating the concept of fuzzy language and fuzzy truth.But I would agree that if we can identify all possible cases where Bob is or is not in the set of baldness one might claim truth is no longer fuzzy but one needs to then prove that knowledge of all possible states has been established I think.
Yes, this separation is confused. “Bob is bald” is true if Bob is contained in the set of bald things, and false if he is not contained in the set of bald things. But baldness is a vague concept, its extension is a fuzzy set. The containment relation is a partial one. So Bob isn’t just either in the set or not in the set. To use binary truth values here, we have to make the simplifying assumption that “bald” is not vague. Otherwise we get fuzzy truth values which indicate the degree to which Bob is contained in the fuzzy set of bald things.
What happens when Bob can be found in or out of the set of bald things at different times or in different situations, but we might not understand (or even be well aware) of the conditions that drive Bob’s membership in the set when we’re evaluating baldness and Bob?
Can membership in baldness turn out to be some type of quantum state thing?
That might be a basis for separating the concept of fuzzy language and fuzzy truth.But I would agree that if we can identify all possible cases where Bob is or is not in the set of baldness one might claim truth is no longer fuzzy but one needs to then prove that knowledge of all possible states has been established I think.