First-Order Modal Logic

Fitting and Mendelsohn present a thorough treatment of first-order modal logic, together with some propositional background. They adopt throughout a threefold approach. Semantically, they use possible world models; the formal proof machinery is tableaus; and full philosophical discussions are provided of the way that technical developments bear on well-known philosophical problems.
The book covers quantification itself, including the difference between actualist and possibilist quantifiers; equality, leading to a treatment of Frege's morning star/evening star puzzle; the notion of existence and the logical problems surrounding it; non-rigid constants and function symbols; predicate abstraction, which abstracts a predicate from a formula, in effect providing a scoping function for constants and function symbols, leading to a clarification of ambiguous readings at the heart of several philosophical problems; the distinction between nonexistence and nondesignation; and definite descriptions, borrowing from both Fregean and Russellian paradigms.

Autorentext
Richard L. Mendelsohn is Professor of Philosophy at Lehman College and the Graduate School, the City University of New York.

Zusammenfassung
Presents a treatment of first-order modal logic. This book covers such issues as quantification, equality (including a treatment of Frege's morning star/evening star puzzle), the notion of existence, non-rigid constants and function symbols, predicate abstraction, the distinction between nonexistence and nondesignation, and definite descriptions.

Inhalt
Preface. 1. Propositional Modal Logic. 2. Tableau Proof Systems. 3. Axiom Systems. 4. Quantified Modal Logic. 5. First-Order Tableaus. 6. First-Order Axiom Systems. 7. Equality. 8. Existence and Actualist Quantification. 9. Terms and Predicate Abstraction. 10. Abstraction Continued. 11. Designation. 12. Definite Descriptions. References. Index.