The Tense Logic for Master Argument in Prior's Reconstruction

摘要

In this paper we examine Prior's reconstruction of Master Argument [4] insome modal-tense logic. This logic consists of a purely tense part and Diodorean definitionsof modal alethic operators. Next we study this tense logic in the pure tense language. Itis the logic K_t4plus a new axiom (P): 'pAGp 3P G p'. This formula was used by Priorin his original analysis of Master Argument. (P) is usually added as an extra axiom toan axiomatization of the logic of linear time. In that case the set of moments is a totalorder and must be left-discrete without the least moment. However, the logic of MasterArgument does not require linear time. We show what properties of the set of momentsare exactly forced by (P) in the reconstruction of Prior. We make also some philosophicalremarks on the analyzed reconstruction.