Our systems are now restored following recent technical disruption, and we’re working hard to catch up on publishing. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Find out more

Recommended product

Popular links

Popular links


Modal Logic for Philosophers

Modal Logic for Philosophers

Modal Logic for Philosophers

James W. Garson, University of Houston
No date available
Hardback
9780521863674
Hardback

    Designed for use by philosophy students, this 2006 book provides an accessible, yet technically sound treatment of modal logic and its philosophical applications. Every effort has been made to simplify the presentation by using diagrams in place of more complex mathematical apparatus. These and other innovations provide philosophers with easy access to a rich variety of topics in modal logic, including a full coverage of quantified modal logic, non-rigid designators, definite descriptions, and the de-re de-dictio distinction. Discussion of philosophical issues concerning the development of modal logic is woven into the text. The book uses natural deduction systems and also includes a diagram technique that extends the method of truth trees to modal logic. This feature provides a foundation for a novel method for showing completeness, one that is easy to extend to systems that include quantifiers.

    • Extensive use of diagrams to simplify the presentation of technical material: natural deduction rules also help make material accessible
    • Accessible and useful for philosophers
    • New methods for proving technical results are presented which simplify the proofs, especially when quantifiers are introduced

    Reviews & endorsements

    'This book is a very well written introduction into propositional and first-order logic. … This book is a very valuable enlargement of the textbook literature, particularly for the field of first order modal logic's. And it is not only suitable for philosophers; also mathematicians and computer scientists may use it with benefit. it correctly defines all notions, makes clear claims and proves them in detail.' Zentralblatt MATH

    See more reviews

    Product details

    No date available
    Hardback
    9780521863674
    472 pages
    234 × 158 × 29 mm
    0.747kg

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction
    • 1. The system K
    • 2. Extensions of K
    • 3. Intensional semantics
    • 4. Trees for K
    • 5. The accessibility relation
    • 6. Trees for extensions of K
    • 7. Converting trees to proofs
    • 8. Adequacy of propositional modal logics
    • 9. Completeness using canonical models
    • 10. The general axiom
    • 11. Relations between the modal logics
    • 12. Systems for quantified modal logic
    • 13. Semantics for quantified modal logics
    • 14. Trees for quantified modal logic
    • 15. The adequacy of quantified modal logics
    • 16. Completeness of quantified modal logics using trees
    • 17. Completeness using canonical models
    • 18. Descriptions
    • 19. Lambda abstraction.
      Author
    • James W. Garson , University of Houston

      James W. Garson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston. He has held grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, and the Apple Education Foundation. He is also the author of numerous articles in logic, semantics, linguistics, the philosophy of cognitive science, and computerized education.