Locating Vagueness

The claim that all vagueness must be a feature of language or thought is the current orthodoxy. This is a claim about the “location” of vagueness. “Locating Vagueness” argues that this claim is false, largely by defending the possibility of borderline cases in the absence of language and thought. If the orthodoxy about the location of vagueness is false, then so too is any account of the “nature” of vagueness that implies that orthodoxy. So this paper concludes that various accounts of the nature of vagueness are false. Among such accounts, so this paper argues, are the standard versions of supervaluationism and the standard versions of epistemicism. So I conclude that those accounts are false. Along the way, I present, and uncover ways to motivate, several heretical accounts of the nature of vagueness, including nonstandard versions of both supervaluationism and epistemicism

Précis of Propositions

Precis for symposium on Propositions

Replies to Wang, Speaks, and Pautz

Replies for a symposium on Propositions

Gaining Environmental Benefits from Positive Land Management: Practical Experience from the North Kent Marshes

Whilst Environmental Cross Compliance may be one way of reducing environmental disbenefits or negative externalities, it is argued that a better way of providing environmental benefits or positive externalities is to clarify the objectives of environmental policy and to link payments more directly to the achievement of those objectives. Experience at Elmley shows how this has been achieved in the UK. The 1200 ha Elmley Estate is managed both as a working farm and for wildlife as the Elmley National Nature Reserve. The whole estate falls within the North Kent Marshes Environmentally Sensitive Area. The Estate now supports a greater number of breeding waders than any other lowland wet grassland site in England. This growth in wildlife has been achieved through the positive management of water levels and the grazing of sheep and cattle together with other land management techniques. It provides a successful example of practical and integrated farm management producing prime quality store livestock and greatly increased wildlife.Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

IMPRESS and the Future of Press Regulation in the UK: Lecture by Walter Merricks CBE

The report of the Leveson Inquiry in November 2012 following the phone hacking scandal was a critical moment in the history of the UK press, and the question of how precisely to design an effective, independent system of self-regulation is still being fought over to this day. Walter Merricks, Chair of Impress, which bills itself as “the first truly independent press regulator in the UK”, speaking here at a public event organised by the Media Policy Project, announces the first members of his organisation and explains why – unlike the Independent Press Standards Organisation which regulates most major UK newspaper publishers – Impress has decided to apply for external recognition as a regulator by the Press Recognition Panel. A podcast of the event, including a Q&A with members of the audience, is available to listen to here