Modal logic | Possible Worlds, Necessity, Possibility | Britannica (original) (raw)

modal logic, formal systems incorporating modalities such as necessity, possibility, impossibility, contingency, strict implication, and certain other closely related concepts.

The most straightforward way of constructing a modal logic is to add to some standard nonmodal logical system a new primitive operator intended to represent one of the modalities, to define other modal operators in terms of it, and to add axioms or transformation rules involving those modal operators. For example, one may add the symbol L, which means “It is necessary that,” to the classical propositional calculus; thus, L p is read as “It is necessary that p.” The possibility operator M (“It is possible that”) may be defined in terms of L as M p = ¬L_¬_p (where ¬ means “not”). In addition to the axioms and rules of inference of classical propositional logic, such a system might have two axioms and one rule of inference of its own. Some characteristic axioms of modal logic are: L p ⊃ p and L(p ⊃ q) ⊃ (L p ⊃ L q). The new rule of inference in this system is the rule of necessitation: if p is a theorem of the system, then so is L p. Stronger systems of modal logic can be obtained by adding additional axioms. For example, some add the axiom L p ⊃ L L p, while others add the axiom M p ⊃ L M p. See formal logic: modal logic.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Brian Duignan.