Jerzy Łoś Positional Calculus and the Origin of Temporal Logic

Abstract

Most accounts, including leading textbooks, credit Arthur Norman Prior with the invention of temporal (tense logic). However, (i) Jerzy Łoś delivered his version of temporal logic in 1947, several years before Prior; (ii) Henrk Hiz’s review of Łoś’s system in Journal of Symbolic Logic was published as early as 1951; (iii) there is evidence to the effect that, when constructing his tense calculi, Prior was aware of Łoś’s system. Therefore, although Prior is certainly a key figure in the history tense logic, as well as modal logic in general, it should be accepted both in the literature that temporal logic was invented by Jerzy Łoś.