Context, interest relativity and the sorites
According to what I will call a contextualist solution to the sorites paradox, vague terms are context-sensitive, and one can give a convincing dissolution of the sorites paradox in terms of this context-dependency. The reason, according to the contextualist, that precise boundaries for expressions like ‘heap’ or ‘tall for a basketball player’ are so difficult to detect is that when two entities are sufficiently similar (or saliently similar), we tend to shift the interpretation of the vague expression so that if one counts as falling in the extension of the property expressed by that expression, so does the other. As a consequence, when we look for the boundary of the extension of a vague expression in its penumbra, our very looking has the effect of changing the interpretation of the vague expression so that the boundary is not where we are looking. This accounts for the persuasive force of sorites arguments. Suppose we are presented with fifty piles each of which has one grain less than the pile to its left. On the far left is a pile we are strongly inclined to call a heap when presented alone. This pile is in the definite extension of ‘heap’. On the far right is a pile we are slightly inclined not to call a heap when presented alone. It is towards the end of the penumbra of ‘heap’. But starting with the left-most pile (pile 1), we may make progressive judgements of the form: