First-Order Modal Logic Softcover Repri Edition Contributor(s): Fitting, M. (Author), Mendelsohn, Richard L. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0792353358 ISBN-13: 9780792353355 Publisher: Springer OUR PRICE: $237.49 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 1999 Annotation: Fitting and Mendelsohn present a thorough treatment of first-order modal logic, together with some propositional background. They adopt throughout a threefold approach. Semantically, they use possible world models; the formal proof machinery is tableaus; and full philosophical discussions are provided of the way that technical developments bear on well-known philosophical problems. The book covers quantification itself, including the difference between actualist and possibilist quantifiers; equality, leading to a treatment of Frege's morning star/evening star puzzle; the notion of existence and the logical problems surrounding it; non-rigid constants and function symbols; predicate abstraction, which abstracts a predicate from a formula, in effect providing a scoping function for constants and function symbols, leading to a clarification of ambiguous readings at the heart of several philosophical problems; the distinction between nonexistence and nondesignation; and definite descriptions, borrowing from both Fregean and Russellian paradigms. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Science | Philosophy & Social Aspects - Philosophy | Logic |
Dewey: 160 |
LCCN: 98037504 |
Series: Synthese Library (Hardcover) |
Physical Information: 0.69" H x 6.12" W x 9.18" (0.96 lbs) 292 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Fitting and Mendelsohn present a thorough treatment of first-order modal logic, together with some propositional background. They adopt throughout a threefold approach. Semantically, they use possible world models; the formal proof machinery is tableaus; and full philosophical discussions are provided of the way that technical developments bear on well-known philosophical problems. The book covers quantification itself, including the difference between actualist and possibilist quantifiers; equality, leading to a treatment of Frege's morning star/evening star puzzle; the notion of existence and the logical problems surrounding it; non-rigid constants and function symbols; predicate abstraction, which abstracts a predicate from a formula, in effect providing a scoping function for constants and function symbols, leading to a clarification of ambiguous readings at the heart of several philosophical problems; the distinction between nonexistence and nondesignation; and definite descriptions, borrowing from both Fregean and Russellian paradigms. |