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Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Vague’ (pub. 20.08.17-11:50). Quote in M. Bergman & S. Paavola (Eds.), The Commens Dictionary: Peirce's Terms in His Own Words. New Edition. Retrieved from http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-issues-pragmaticism-22.
Term: 
Vague
Quote: 

Every utterance naturally leaves the right of further exposition in the utterer; and therefore, in so far as a sign is indeterminate, it is vague, unless it is expressly or by a well-understood convention rendered general. [—]

Perhaps a more scientific pair of definitions would be that anything is general in so far as the principle of excluded middle does not apply to it and is vague in so far as the principle of contradiction does not apply to it.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1905). Issues of Pragmaticism. The Monist, 15(4), 481-499.
References: 
EP 2:351; CP 5.447-448
Date of Quote: 
1905
URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-issues-pragmaticism-22