Modal Logic.

By Brian F Chellas

ISBN: 9780521295154

Printed: 1993

Publisher: Cambridge University Press.

Dimensions 15 × 1.5 cm
Language

Language: English

Size (cminches): 15 x x 1.5

Condition: Very good  (See explanation of ratings)

£44.00
Buy Now

Item information

Description

Paperback. Black binding with white title on the front board.

  • We provide an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available

  • Note: This book carries a £5.00 discount to those that subscribe to the F.B.A. mailing list

Paperback. Condition. A textbook on modal logic, intended for readers already acquainted with the elements of formal logic, containing nearly 500 exercises. Brian F. Chellas provides a systematic introduction to the principal ideas and results in contemporary treatments of modality, including theorems on completeness and decidability. Illustrative chapters focus on deontic logic and conditionality. Modality is a rapidly expanding branch of logic, and familiarity with the subject is now regarded as a necessary part of every philosopher’s technical equipment. Chellas here offers an up-to-date and reliable guide essential for the student. A textbook, with exercises, on modal logic for readers already acquainted with the elements of formal logic.

Review: There are essentially two symmetrical sections to the book. The first covers Kripke models (‘standard models’ in the jargon of Chellas), axiomatic normal modal logics, and then filtrations of such models to show these logics have the finite model property and are decidable. To tie up the section there is an application with a chapter on deontic logic. The second section has the same structure with the topics being neighborhood models (called ‘minimal models’ by Chellas) and classical modal logics (some of which are strictly weaker than the weakest normal modal logic K). Unfortunately the application chapters (deontic logic and conditional logic) are poorly motivated, though one might think the whole point of those chapters is to motivate the inclusion or validation of certain deontic or conditional principles.

There is a lot of good stuff that is relegated to sections on exercises–e.g., p-morphisms, a safe extensions theorem, modal algebras, translations and correspondences between modal formulas and their models and first-order ones and their models (known other places as “correspondence/definability theory”). While there is a good number of exercises, most of them I encountered were quite easy and repetitive. Because of this, I found the text better suited to philosophy undergraduates (or novice graduates) than computer science or mathematics students. But at the same time there is little philosophical digression. The most redeeming feature of the book, I thought, was the latter section on neighborhood models and weak modal logics. I was also surprised to find the little “correspondence theory” that there was in the book. However, a better variation of exercises (in terms of both difficulty and method of proof/construction) would be greatly welcome.

Want to know more about this item?

We are happy to answer any questions you may have about this item. In addition, it is also possible to request more photographs if there is something specific you want illustrated.
Ask a question
Image

Share this Page with a friend