Modal Deduction: An Introduction to Modal Logic - Softcover

Tapscott, Bangs L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1718057822 ISBN 13: 9781718057821

Publisher: Independently published, 2018

Synopsis

Modal Deduction provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of alethic modal logic: the logic of necessity and possibility. It discusses the philosophical problems associated with modal logic, and refers back to them from time to time. Modal logic is the extension of standard logic that allows us to move beyond propositions that are purely truth-functional and are purely extensional. We talk and think about ways that things might have been, but aren't. This book talks about different "circumstances", which are simply different ways for things to be. The number of ways for things to be is large; but only one of them is actual. The others fall into the territory of possibility. In this book I use the familiar natural deduction approach, which employs premisses and assumptions and inferences (rather than axioms) to arrive at conclusions. Hence the title of the book. Modal Logic rests on the platform of standard, non modal logic. So we need to talk about standard logic. This book begins by developing a formal system of standard propositional logic P in detail. From there, the four best-known modal systems, called T, B, S4, and S5 are built, including derivation procedures and modal semantics. Next, it lays out a system of standard quantifier logic Q is laid out, just as with P, followed by building and exploring the quantified versions of T, B, S4, and S5. The book concludes with "Essentialistic Logics", which explore the logical consequences of the philosophically controversial notion that things can have essential properties, tied to their very identity. An extensive bibliography is included. --Bangs L. Tapscott May, 2018

Edition details

• Publisher: Independently published
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1718057822
• ISBN 13: 9781718057821
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 251