Arthur N. Prior on ‘Unquestionably the Best Logical Symbolism for Most Purposes’

Abstract

In his Formal Logic, Arthur N. Prior (1914–1969) declared that Jan Łukasiewicz's logical notation is ‘unquestionably the best logical symbolism for most purposes’. Whether he had a substantive, and not only practical, reason for this notational preference is unclear. Through an investigation of his philosophical outlook towards the nature of logic and representation in general, and the nature of logical ‘operators’ in particular, this paper suggests that there might be a substantive argument for this declaration. This argument is premised on Prior's own metaphysical view that an adequate notation must represent the functional nature of these operators.