Moral Vagueness and Epistemicism

Abstract

Epistemicism is one of the main approaches to the phenomenon of vagueness. But how does it fare in its treatment of moral vagueness?  This paper has two goals. First, I shall explain why various recent arguments against an epistemicist approach to moral vagueness are unsuccessful. Second, I shall explain how, in my view, reflection on the Sorites can inform normative ethics in powerful and interesting ways.  In this connection, I shall be putting the epistemicist treatment to work, engaging with a family of somewhat neglected issues concerning continuity that lie at the interface of metaphysics and ethics.