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The Tense Logic for Master Argument in Prior’s Reconstruction

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Abstract

In this paper we examine Prior’s reconstruction of Master Argument [4] in some modal-tense logic. This logic consists of a purely tense part and Diodorean definitions of modal alethic operators. Next we study this tense logic in the pure tense language. It is the logic K t 4 plus a new axiom (P): ‘p Λ G p ⊃ P G p’. This formula was used by Prior in his original analysis of Master Argument. (P) is usually added as an extra axiom to an axiomatization of the logic of linear time. In that case the set of moments is a total order and must be left-discrete without the least moment. However, the logic of Master Argument does not require linear time. We show what properties of the set of moments are exactly forced by (P) in the reconstruction of Prior. We make also some philosophical remarks on the analyzed reconstruction.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Logic, Nicolaus Copernicus University, ul. Asnyka 2, 87-100, Toruń, Poland

    Tomasz Jarmużek & Andrzej Pietruszczak

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  1. Tomasz Jarmużek
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  2. Andrzej Pietruszczak
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Correspondence to Tomasz Jarmużek.

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Jarmużek, T., Pietruszczak, A. The Tense Logic for Master Argument in Prior’s Reconstruction. Stud Logica 92, 85–108 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11225-009-9187-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11225-009-9187-0

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