Modalities: Philosophical Essays

by Ruth Barcan Marcus

Overview

Based on her earlier ground-breaking axiomatization of quantified modal logic, the papers collected here by the distinguished philosopher Ruth Barcan Marcus cover much ground in the development of her thought, spanning from 1961 to 1990. The first essay here introduces themes initially viewed as iconoclastic, such as the necessity of identity, the directly referential role of proper names as "tags", the Barcan Formula about the interplay of possibility and existence, and alternative interpretations of quantification. Marcus also addresses the putative puzzles about substitutivity and about essentialism. The collection also includes influential essays on moral conflict, on belief and rationality, and on some historical figures. Many of her views have been incorporated into current theories, while others remain part of a continuing debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198023968
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/29/1995
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	537 KB

About the Author

Yale University

Table of Contents

1. Introduction2. Modalities and Intensional Languages3. Iterated Deontic Modalities4. Essentialism in Modal Logic5. Essential attributionAppendix: Strict implication, deducibility and the deduction theorem6. Quantification and ontology7. Classes, collections, assortments, and individuals8. Does the principle of substitutivity rest on a mistake? 9. Nominalism and the substitutional quantifier10. Moral dilemmas and consistency11. Rationality and believing the impossible12. Spinoza and the ontological proof13. On some post-1920s views of Russell on particularity, identity and individiation14. Possibilia and possible worlds15. A backward look at Quine's animadversions on modalities16. Some revisionary proposals about belief and believing

Editorial Reviews

"The essays collected here are enduring contributions that have deeply affected the course of twentieth-century philosophy. Reading them together reminds one forcefully of the ingenuity, power, and unity of thought of a most philosophical logician, and a most logical philosopher."—Review of Metaphysics

"Collects most of Marcus's profoundly influential attempts to illuminate the formal structure and metaphysical underpinnings of model discourse....Provides an extraordinary feast of reason and imagination; it is deeply provocative and contains some of the most influential philosophy of this century."—Journal of Philosophy

"Marcus's ideas on identity an naming that are so carefully presented in the essays of Modalities have become part of the fabric of contemporary philosophy. Her theory of belief is exciting and potentially just as important....Modalities unquestionably belongs on the bookshelf of every philosopher."—British Journal for the Philosophy of Science

"[An] admirable book....Marcus's contributions to philosophical logic, which have been relatively neglected, are impressive; and I hope the publication of this book will help give her work the recognition it deserves."—International Journal of Philosophical Studies

"I enthusiastically recommend this book to those interested in either contemporary or historical issues related to Marcus's work....An interesting and relevant collection."—The Philosophical Review

From the Publisher