‘Optimally Vague’ contracts and their benefits to society

Imagine that you’re just about to sign an important contract – would you prefer it to have been precisely drafted, or would you be happy for it to be “optimally vague” ? Authors Nicola Gennaioli (Bocconi University and IGIER) and Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto (CREI, Pompeu Fabra University, IPEG and Barcelona GSE) suggest not only […]

Governing cyberspace via ‘Constructive Ambiguity’ (and Schrödinger’s cat)

How can the vastness of cyberspace can be ‘governed’ in any practical way? Perhaps some ‘Constructive Ambiguity’ might help resolve such questions? A 2015 thesis by Professor Paul Cornish (Associate Director of Oxford University’s Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre and Research Group Director for Defence, Security and Infrastructure at RAND Europe in Cambridge, UK) suggests […]

The problem of artificial precision in theories of vagueness

Vincenzo Marra points his finger more or less exactly at a simply difficult question: “The problem of artificial precision in theories of vagueness: a note on the role of maximal consistency,” Vincenzo Marra, arXiv:1306.4369, June 18, 2013.  The author is at Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy. (Thanks to investigator K.P. Hart for bringing this […]

Blobjects – a disambiguation

According to Wikipedia, a Blobject (n.) is: “… a design product, often a household object, distinguished by smooth flowing curves, bright colors, and an absence of sharp edges.” But for philosophers (ontologists in particular), a Blobject can be more, much more, than that … “Imagine a world consisting entirely of gunkish, jello-ish, stuff.” viz., the […]

The Virtue of Vagueness in Vision Statements

Those tasked with running large organisations sometimes have to make major changes to achieve organisational goals. What can be done to help ensure that these changes are effective? One strategy – proposed by professor Dennis A. Gioia and colleagues at the Department of Management and Organization of Penn State University, is to deliberately introduce a […]

A load of vague non-numerical quantifiers

Cross-disciplinary  academic progress in vagueness has recently been augmented  with a paper from Prof. PhDr. Jarmila Tárnyiková CSc. at Palacký University, in Olomouc, Czech Republic. The professor has authored one of the very few papers to examine and compare English and Czech Non-numerical Vague Quantifiers (also known as Vague Non-numerical Quantifiers – VnQs). Some examples […]