Organon F

Volume 30, February 2023, Issue 1, Pages 5–31

ISSN 2585-7150 (online) ISSN 1335-0668 (print)

Research Article | Special issue on Times, Events, and Logical Specification

Highlights in the Development of Tense-Logic

Peter Øhrstrøm

https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2023.30102

Abstract

In 1954, on the 27th August, Arthur Norman Prior presented his ideas of tense-logic for the first time. He developed the field further in many publications until his death in 1969. His books Time and Modality (1957a), Past, Present and Future (1967), and Papers on Time and Tense (1968) were clearly vital milestones. Much of Prior’s personal motivation had to do with his struggle with the logical tension between the theological doctrines of divine foreknowledge and human freedom. It turned out that tense-logic gave rise to a powerful tool for dealing with this and similar problems. Furthermore, important highlights in Prior’s tense-logic were the development of branching time and the introduction of instant propositions (leading to what has later been called ‘hybrid logic’). Since Prior’s death, many further developments of formal tense-logic and its semantics have been presented and carefully investigated. In philosophical logic, many researchers have focused on discussions regarding ‘the true future’ and the notion of ‘the thin red line’.

Keywords

Tense-logic; A.N. Prior; time; modality; determinism.

Author(s) and affiliation(s)

Author

Peter Øhrstrøm

Affiliation

Aalborg University

Address

Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

E-mail

poe@ikp.aau.dk 

About this article

Received

15 September 2022

Revised

11 January 2023

Accepted

3 February 2023

Publishers

Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences

Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Cite as

APA

Øhrstrøm, P. (2023). Highlights in the Development of Tense-Logic. Organon F30(1), 5–31. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2023.30102

Chicago

Øhrstrøm, Peter. 2023. "Highlights in the Development of Tense-Logic." Organon F 30 (1): 5–31. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2023.30102

Harvard

Øhrstrøm, P. (2023). Highlights in the Development of Tense-Logic. Organon F, 30(1), pp. 5–31. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2023.30102

Copyright information

© Peter Øhrstrøm

Response page

https://www.sav.sk/?lang=sk&doc=journal-list&part=article_response_page&journal_article_no=30190

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This article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0).


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