Spectrum arguments and hypersensitivity

Theron Gene Pummer

doi:10.1007/s11098-017-0932-3

Spectrum arguments and hypersensitivity

Theron Gene Pummer

Philosophy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Larry Temkin famously argues that what he calls spectrum arguments yield strong reason to reject Transitivity, according to which the ‘all-things-considered better than’ relation is transitive. Spectrum arguments do reveal that the conjunctions of independently plausible claims are inconsistent with Transitivity. But I argue that there is very strong independent reason to reject such conjunctions of claims, and thus that the fact that they are inconsistent with Transitivity does not yield strong reason to reject Transitivity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1729-1744
Journal	Philosophical Studies
Volume	175
Issue number	7
Early online date	25 May 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-017-0932-3
Publication status	Published - Jul 2018

Keywords

Spectrum arguments
Sorites arguments
Transitivity
Hypersensitivity
Temkin

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© The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
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Theron Gene Pummer
- tgp4st-andrews.acuk
- Philosophy - Professor
- Centre for Energy Ethics
- Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good
- Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs - Director
Person: Academic

Cite this

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KW - Sorites arguments

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Spectrum arguments and hypersensitivity

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Keywords

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Theron Gene Pummer

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