What Vague Objects are like
Michael Morreau

Abstract:
Might cats, cities, clouds and other ordinary things really be vague,
in the sense that they lack sharp boundaries? It is widely thought
that this idea is more or less unintelligible. I argue that it makes
good sense: ordinary things are vague because there is sometimes no
matter of fact whether one such thing is a part of another. There is
nothing especially mysterious about this idea. Contrary to what is
widely thought, vague things need not have any sort of shady presence
or indefinite identities. Surprisingly, perhaps, the existence of
vague things is substantially compatible with received ideas about
parts and wholes, as set out in classical mereology.

Keyword(s): vagueness, objects, mereology