more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 10928

[filed under theme 4. Formal Logic / D. Modal Logic ML / 1. Modal Logic ]

Full Idea

Perhaps there is no objection to quantifying into modal contexts as long as the values of any variables thus quantified are limited to intensional objects, but they also lead to disturbing examples.

Clarification

'Intensional' objects are in thought rather than in reality

Gist of Idea

Maybe we can quantify modally if the objects are intensional, but it seems unlikely

Source

Willard Quine (Reference and Modality [1953], §3)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'From a Logical Point of View' [Harper and Row 1963], p.152


A Reaction

[Quine goes on to give his examples] I take it that possibilities are features of actual reality, not merely objects of thought. The problem is that they are harder to know than actual objects.


The 18 ideas with the same theme [general ideas about the nature of modal logic]:

Modal Square 1: □P and ¬◊¬P are 'contraries' of □¬P and ¬◊P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
Modal Square 2: ¬□¬P and ◊P are 'subcontraries' of ¬□P and ◊¬P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
Modal Square 3: □P and ¬◊¬P are 'contradictories' of ¬□P and ◊¬P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
Modal Square 4: □¬P and ¬◊P are 'contradictories' of ¬□¬P and ◊P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
Modal Square 5: □P and ¬◊¬P are 'subalternatives' of ¬□¬P and ◊P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
Modal Square 6: □¬P and ¬◊P are 'subalternatives' of ¬□P and ◊¬P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
Quine says quantified modal logic creates nonsense, bad ontology, and false essentialism [Melia on Quine]
Quantified modal logic collapses if essence is withdrawn [Quine]
Maybe we can quantify modally if the objects are intensional, but it seems unlikely [Quine]
It was realised that possible worlds covered all modal logics, if they had a structure [Dummett]
Propositional modal logic has been proved to be complete [Kripke, by Feferman/Feferman]
Kripke's modal semantics presupposes certain facts about possible worlds [Kripke, by Zalta]
Possible worlds allowed the application of set-theoretic models to modal logic [Kripke]
The interest of quantified modal logic is its metaphysical necessity and essentialism [Soames]
Modal operators are usually treated as quantifiers [Shapiro]
Modal logic gives an account of metalogical possibility, not metaphysical possibility [Burgess/Rosen]
First-order predicate calculus is extensional logic, but quantified modal logic is intensional (hence dubious) [Melia]
Simple Quantified Modal Logc doesn't work, because the Converse Barcan is a theorem [Merricks]