Preface

Abstract

This chapter presents a brief preview of the book Handbook of the History of Logic, Volume 7 . A modal logic is one whose logical vocabulary contains the modal expressions “possibly,” “necessarily” and “contingently,” construed as sentence operators. The semanticizing of modal sentences opened up an important tension between modal and classical logics. Perhaps the most significant difference is that, whereas classical systems are extensional, modal setups are intentional, a happenstance which various philosophers of logic have greeted with suspicion and in some cases, incredulity. With the rise of modern modal logic, the emphasis began to shift. Under press of developments in computer science and argumentation theory, logic started a shift toward a greater emphasis on reasoning. The chapters of this volume are an attempt to lodge pragmatic developments affecting agents and situations in the methodology and principal attainments of the classical analyses of implication and the like. However, there is a widespread desire on the part of modal logicians to retain as much of classical logic as comports with their modal ambitions.