Indeterminacy in the World

The way we represent the world in thought and language isshot through with indeterminacy: we speak of red apples and yellowapples without thereby committing to any sharp cutoff between theapplication of the predicate ‘red’ and of the predicate ‘yellow’. But canreality itself be indeterminate? In other words, can indeterminacyoriginate in the mind-independent world, and not only in ourrepresentations? If so, can the phenomenon also arise at themicroscopic scale of fundamental physics? Section 1 of this Elementprovides a brief overview of the question of indeterminacy. Section 2discusses the thesis that the world is comprised of indeterminateobjects, whereas Section 3 focuses on the thesis that there areindeterminate states of affairs. Finally, Section 4 is devoted to the casestudy of indeterminacy in quantum physics.