Modal Predicates Research Articles

A point of reference

83. It should now be apparent that the familiar problems of reference and modality can be satisfactorily resolved without either abandoning substitutivity of identity in modal contexts or invoking an intensional ontology. It might be argued, however, that the suggested resolution avoids invoking an intensional ontology only because the modal predicates, e.g. Nec and Believes, are left unanalysed. This may well be true but it should be appreciated that the analysis of modal predicates is an issue which is independent of both the problem of reference in modal contexts and the problem of the logical structure of propositions containing such contexts. These problems can be settled, as we have seen, without also settling how the modal predicates are to be analysed. Hence, if an intensional ontology is in the end required, it is required to analyse the modal predicates, not to solve the problems of reference and logical structure. This, we suggest, is an interesting and perhaps unexpected result.

On the existence of a modal antinomy

1. Our interest here is in the relations between the syntactical predicate fi_is true' and the syntactical modal predicates such as '_is necessary', *_is possible', '_is contingent', and *_entails...' That there should be similarities between these predicates is not surprising since the modal predicates are so-called because they deal with what used to be known as 'modes' of truth. '_is necessary', for example, is synonymous with '_is necessarily true'. The alleged pre-analytic view of the correct use of the predicate *_ is true' is that we may accept all instances of the schema

An Introduction to Modal Logic.

This long-awaited book replaces Hughes and Cresswell's two classic studies of modal logic: An Introduction to Modal Logic and A Companion to Modal Logic.A New Introduction to Modal Logic is an entirely new work, completely re-written by the authors. They have incorporated all the new developments that have taken place since 1968 in both modal propositional logic and modal predicate logic, without sacrificing tha clarity of exposition and approachability that were essential features of their earlier works.The book takes readers from the most basic systems of modal propositional logic right up to systems of modal predicate with identity. It covers both technical developments such as completeness and incompleteness, and finite and infinite models, and their philosophical applications, especially in the area of modal predicate logic.

On the Undecidability of Monadic Modal Predicate Logic

On the Undecidability of Monadic Modal Predicate Logic