A Layperson Reflection on Sorites

Abstract

This paper just contains some reflections on the well known classical ’Sorites Paradox’, under which it appears that some imprecise linguistic terms cannot have a crisp extension, that there is no any subset containing the elements in the universe verifying the term. Such reflections are conducted from a typically layperson’s point of view that heaps are not definable by means of the number of grains of sand they have, but mainly by its three-dimensional shape. Representing imprecise terms P by means of fuzzy sets, or contextual membership functions, it is shown that the Black’s separation point is sometimes uniquely determinable, and that it always exists a crisp subset whose elements are ’more’ P than either not P, or an opposite of P. Additionally, some considerations on the case of heaps once compared with the shape of either a pyramid, or a circular cone, are done.