Arthur Prior: A Calvinist route to logic

Abstract

Arthur Prior is best known for tense logic and recent interest has also turned to his work in philosophical theology. It is also well known that Prior was deeply interested in Scottish moral philosophy up to 1949. Prior was a theology student before he turned to philosophy and even when a philosophy student he continued to think about and write on theology, stating in a letter from 1936: “I have hopes of ending up eventually as the editor of a religious periodical.” Prior’s theology was strongly influenced by the Swiss neo-orthodox theologian Karl Barth- and also by the nineteenth century theologian F.D. Maurice. What is far less well known is that Prior was also influenced by the work of John Calvin. This paper traces the influence of John Calvin on Prior’s thought via previously unknown (and recently published) letters and unpublished articles written by Prior. It argues that Logic and the Basis of Ethics (1948) is where Prior the theologian finally becomes Prior the logician, and does so because of the limits of Calvinist logic.