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Modal Logic and the Logic of Applicability [annoteret udgave af Arthur N. Priors artikel]
No full textC. A. Meredith, A. N. Prior, and Possible Worlds.
No full textAbstract: Arthur Prior and Carew Meredith cooperated on the formulation of several systems of logic. The cooperation was so close that on the basis of their joint work, they are both considered to be precursors of possible worlds semantics. However, their concept of possible worlds, their understanding of the relevant formal representations and indeed their general approach to modal logic considerably differed. These differences should be pointed out in order to more precisely appreciate the contribution of each of these authors. To neglect the differences could cause the misinterpretation of Meredith’s and Prior’s work. On the one hand, it might cause corruption of Meredith’s system of logic and lead to paradoxes, as Prior pointed out in ‘Modal Logic with Functorial Variables and a Contingent Constant’. On the other hand, considering Prior as a mere follower of Meredith could cause an underestimation of Prior’s originality and contribution to this field
Prior’s turn from determinism to indeterminism
Full text linkIndeterminism assumes a central place in Arthur Norman Prior’s invention and development of modern tense logic. Before this indeterminism, Prior was for a number of years a devout determinist. But Prior’s turn from determinism to indeterminism, so important for his mature work, has never been explained properly. This article presents the enigma of Prior’s turn from determinism to indeterminism. We know much about his early determinism and recently have learned more about how he became a determinist, but, apart from the fact that he in the course of the years between 1949 and 1953 became an indeterminist, we know very little about how or why he became an indeterminist and what exactly he then understood by free will and indeterminism. He never explained this himself at any length, but scattered remarks in various texts provide some aid in approaching this issue. We here take a look at some important texts in which Prior writes about the free will to help us a step further toward solving this riddle
In Celebration of Past, Present and Future
No full textA.N. Prior’s Past, Present and Future was published 50 years ago in 1967 and was clearly a milestone in the development of tense-logic. It is a mature and comprehensive presentation of the basic concepts, systems and issues in tense-logic. In addition it also contains a number of interesting ideas that later led to important further developments of the field. Past, Present and Future represents a culmination of Prior’s struggle with the problem of determinism (including his study of the tension between the doctrines of divine foreknowledge and human freedom). Prior’s study of the problem of determinism led him to a reconstruction of the famous Diodorean Master Argument which had for centuries been regarded as a strong argument in favour of determinism. In his further analysis of the problem, he made extensive use of tense-logic and the idea of branching time suggested to him by Saul Kripke. However, in Past, Present and Future Prior also stresses that time as such should not simply be understood in terms of branching time diagrams. Such diagrams should be seen not as direct representations of time but rather as figures helpful for understanding a deeper tense-logical structure
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