4 ms·
That point doesn't need to exist. A "heap" is not a formally defined concept, and the Sorites paradox is basically what you get when you improperly assume it mu
by Retra 11y ago
That point doesn't need to exist. A "heap" is not a formally defined concept, and the Sorites paradox is basically what you get when you improperly assume it must be.
Think about how you learned the meaning of the word "heap." People just used it. They used it in some varying contexts, and your brain picked up on a pattern.
It's like if I said "This is my dog, Blue" and someone was all hung up on the paradox of "what color is the dog, really." Blue is the name of the dog. You know this because I used it as a name. You don't need a formal definition, all you need is to know how a name-context works, and you can tell it's the dogs name.
"The probability of something being viewed as a heap" is not the right way of looking at it. What's important is the probability of it being correct to be called a heap, which is derived from the correlations in usage patterns of the word "heap" around various things.