Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Sorites
/səˈraɪtiːz/noun
The paradox that no single grain makes a heap yet enough of them do, and any argument chaining small steps into an unacceptable end.
The Greek roots
σωρίτης
sōrítēs
heaped up
Literally: “heaper”
Follow a root:σωρίτης1 word
The story of the word
Eubulides of Miletus set it out in the fourth century BC among a set of puzzles aimed at his rivals: remove one grain from a heap and it is still a heap, repeat, and you finish insisting that one grain is a heap. Chrysippus is reported to have answered by going quiet at the point where the question stopped being clear. Philosophers now file it under vagueness, and lawyers meet it every time a statute uses the word reasonable.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
In a sentence
Every attempt to define poverty by a single income line runs into a sorites.