Not Exactly

In Praise of Vagueness
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-964573-2
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 358 Seiten, Format (B × H): 128 mm x 196 mm, Gewicht: 388 g

Not everything is black and white. Our daily lives are full of vagueness or fuzziness. Language is the most obvious example - for instance, when we describe someone as tall, it is as though there is a particular height beyond which a person can be considered 'tall'. Likewise the terms 'blond' or 'overweight' in common usage. We often think in discontinuous categories when we are considering something continuous.

In this book, van Deemter cuts across various disciplines in considering the nature and importance of vagueness. He looks at the principles of measurement, and how we choose categories; the vagueness lurking behind what seems at first sight crisp concepts such as that of the biological 'species'; uncertainties in grammar and the impact of vagueness on the programmes of Chomsky and Montague; vagueness and mathematical logic; computers, vague descriptions, and Natural Language Generation in AI (a new class of programs will allow computers to handle descriptions such as 'the man in the yellow shirt').

Van Deemter shows why vagueness is in various circumstances both unavoidable and useful, and how we are increasingly able to handle fuzziness in mathematical logic and computer science.

Zielgruppe

The serious lay reader, and also of interest to academics and students in a range of disciplines.

Autoren/Hrsg.

van Deemter, Kees

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Mathematische Logik
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Philosophie der Mathematik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie der Mathematik, Philosophie der Physik
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Künstliche Intelligenz Fuzzy-Systeme
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophische Logik, Argumentationstheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Prologue

- 1: Introduction: False Clarity

- Part 1: Vagueness, where one leasts expects it

- 2: Sex and similarity: On the Fiction of Species

- 3: Measurements that Matter

- 4: Identity and Gradual Change

- 5: Vagueness in Numbers and Maths

- Part II: Theories of Vagueness

- 6: The Linguistics of Vagueness

- 7: Reasoning with Vague Information

- 8: Parrying a Paradox

- 9: Degrees of Truth

- Part III: Working Models of Vagueness

- 10: Artificial Intelligence

- 11: When to be Vague: Computers as Authors

- 12: The Explusion from Boole's Paradise

- Epilogue: Guaranteed Correct

- Endnotes

- Further Reading

- Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

van Deemter, Kees
Kees van Deemter, Reader in Computing Science, University of Aberdeen

Kees van Deemter is a Reader in Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen. He works in computational linguistics, the area of artificial intelligence where computer science meets linguistics and his main areas of expertise are computational semantics and natural language generation. He has previously authored 90 research publications in philosophical logic, artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.

Kees van Deemter is a Reader in Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen. He works in computational linguistics, the area of artificial intelligence where computer science meets linguistics and his main areas of expertise are computational semantics and natural language generation. He has previously authored 90 research publications in philosophical logic, artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.