Logic and Philosophy of Time

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2023): The History and Philosophy of Tense-logic
Articles

A Modal Translational Semantics in Prior’s “Symbolism and Analogy”

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  • Jeremiah Joven Joaquin
Jeremiah Joven Joaquin
De La Salle University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54337/lpt.v5i1.7852

Published 23-10-2023

Keywords

  • Deontic Logic,
  • Modal Logic,
  • Modal semantics,
  • Possible Worlds Semantics,
  • Temporal Logic,
  • Translational semantics
    • ...More
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How to Cite

Joaquin, J. J. (2023). A Modal Translational Semantics in Prior’s “Symbolism and Analogy”. Logic and Philosophy of Time, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.54337/lpt.v5i1.7852

Copyright (c) 2023 Logic and Philosophy of Time

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This paper explores a modal semantics Arthur Prior developed in his 1957 lecture, “Symbolism and Analogy.” Prior’s semantics employs a translational scheme where certain modal axioms are translated as sentences in an easily understood language. Using Prior’s semantics, we show that one can distinguish between modal logics like D, M, T, S4, and S5 without recourse to possible worlds. Finally, given the current conception of what a semantics ought to be, we consider whether Prior’s modal semantics is indeed a semantics.

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