Sorites Paradox: When Does a Heap of Sand Stop Being a Heap of Sand?

Philosophy, besides being a good major of choice for fast food workers (kidding! No hate mails please - those fries will get cold if you don't bag them right away), makes for a pretty good blog reading.

You'd think that after a few thousand years of thinking, all philosophical problems would be solved, but that isn't so. Road Tickle has a list of 4 unsolved philosophical problems for you to ponder. For example:

Sorites Paradox

What’s the problem? Language uses many poorly defined predicates. A fine example is measurement; assume that you define a heap of sand as having one-million grains. You then establish that taking away a single grain doesn’t unmake the heap and it is still defined as being heap. If you accept both of these as fact then what does your definition of a heap actually mean? When does it stop being a heap?

By not giving the heap an precise definition you are simply stating that the heap does or does not exist in some form. Meanwhile, you realize you’ve been sitting and counting individual grains of sand for the sake of a hypothetical question.

What’s the answer? Defining a change in the object require you to set specific boundaries. If you can say that a heap of sand is only a pile of sand if it contains nine-thousand or fewer grains then you can say that a pile is only a heap when it contains more than nine-thousand grains.

At least, that’s one answer. Sorites paradox is what’s referred to as an unsolved problem in philosophy, meaning there is no one method of approaching the question as to solve it universally. Because it’s hinged on definition and perception, the answer is going to vary from individual to individual without a commonly accepted answer overlapping.

Link

People who want precise definitions should not use imprecise words. Words like "heap" and "lots" and "yonder" are all meant to be relative, which means only your relatives know how much you are talking about.
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I'm glad I'm an engineer and don't have to worry about such foolishness. Just do it by weight.

But if you insist, I will define sand quantities for you in terms of grain count.

1-50 grains: "grains"
50-500 grains: "a dusting"
500-5,000: "small heap"
5,000-10,000: "heap"
10,000-100,000: "large heap"
>100,000: "a pile"

acceptable tolerance +/- 20% (because who gives a @#%^& if you call a "heap" a "small heap" by accident)

Standard: ESTABLISHED! Now you're free to go prove black is white, or drink a glass of water, or do whatever you people do.
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How about colours ?

When does mauve start to be purple, where is the exact boundary between Antracite & dark grey ?

Unsolved, unsolved, I canĀ“t sleep now....
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@tsaar-
colors aren't an issue like this at all. Colors are clearly well defined by their component values.

The problem is telling you where the blue family of colors stop and the violet family start.
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"what does your definition of a heap actually mean? When does it stop being a heap?"

When you decide that it does. The definition is arbitrary in the first place.

"colors aren't an issue like this at all. Colors are clearly well defined by their component values."

Except that color is subjective, and we all perceive them slightly differently. Until a purple gets rather magenta-y, it just looks like dark blue to me. Technically i've got red-green colorblindness with some other ambiguities mixed in. That same 'handicap' also means that camouflage isn't as effective if im looking for you.

I see a full range of color, but it isn't the same one you see.
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Define the words. Problem solved.

That's the problem with being human. We call a wall a wall because we don't want to list every atom that consists of said wall (or every subatomic particle that consists of those atoms, etc). Language is all just a method of optimization, and it's lack of definition to words that causes problems like that. It gets even more confusing when you realize in 5 years they might not call them walls anymore, and instead use a word with slightly different definitions.

That was the whole problem with Pluto and it being a planet. We can't explain to everyone the size and mass of each body of material in our solar system every time we talk about it. We call them planets (and now dwarf planets) instead. And then if you need to adaptively contrast your definitions, you can go further and say said planet is Earth, then go even further and say that Earth's surface is 30% solid, then you can say what percentage of the crust is titanium, then you can go on to explain the physical properties of titanium if you really need to.

Adaptive sampling!
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A similar famous debated paradox is:

When is a man officially bald? when he loses the last hair on his head? When it no longer covers the top? WHat percentage? what if it's just really sparse and thin?

Fun stuff. One of my personal favorites is the Ship of Theseus.
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