Temporal logic. From ancient ideas to artificial intelligence
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Temporal logic. From ancient ideas to artificial intelligence
zbMATH Open document ID: 0855.03003
author: Peter Øhrstrøm
author: Per F. V. Hasle
published in: Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy
publication date: 1996-07-21T00:00:00Z
review text: This book belongs to a certain tradition of temporal logic that is traced back to J. M. E. McTaggart, H. Reichenbach and, especially, to A. N. Prior (1914-1969). A large part of the book can be seen as an extensive survey and commentary of Prior's work, containing numerous references to and quotations from his writings. In this tradition emphasis is laid on the conceptual and philosophical aspects of the notions of time and logic, rather than on the technical and mathematical ones which are usually stressed in the tradition built by the founders of mathematical logic. So the book differs essentially, both in scope and style, from other established monographs and surveys on the subject, like \textit{R. Goldblatt}'s ``Logics of time and computation'' (1987; Zbl 0635.03024), \textit{J. P. Burgess}' ``Basic tense logic'' [in: D. Gabbay et al. (eds.), Handbook of philosophical logic. Vol. II: Extensions of classical logic, 89-133 (1984)] and \textit{D. Harel}'s ``Dynamic logic'' [ibid. 497-604 (1984; Zbl 0572.03003)]. The only other book known to me that, beside its mathematical competence, seems to share some of the philosophical concerns and the spirit of the present one, is \textit{J. van Benthem}'s ``Logic of time'' (1983; Zbl 0508.03008); revised edition (1991; Zbl 0758.03012). In the aforementioned work the emphasis is laid primarily on those mathematical techniques that make it possible to capture the in-time located truth; it is also on the subtleties of proof-theoretic and semantic issues raised by these logics; and it is finally on current applications of temporal logic to areas of great theoretical and practical importance, such as the logic of programs, concurrency, etc. In contrast, the present book, in its greatest part, offers to the reader on the one hand a fascinating tour over the history of the ideas and arguments in which the notions of time, tense, necessity and truth are involved, from Antiquity up to the present day; and on the other hand, the appl…
reviewed by: Athanassios Tzouvaras
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 03-02
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 03A05
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 03B45
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 03-03
zbMATH DE Number: 907666
zbMATH Keywords: temporal logic
zbMATH Keywords: Prior
zbMATH Keywords: history
zbMATH Keywords: time
zbMATH Keywords: tense
zbMATH Keywords: necessity
zbMATH Keywords: truth
zbMATH Keywords: determinism
zbMATH Keywords: human freedom
zbMATH Keywords: counterfactual
zbMATH Keywords: special relativity
zbMATH Keywords: Peirce's paradox
zbMATH Keywords: branching time
zbMATH Keywords: philosophy and mathematics of time
zbMATH Keywords: semantics of natural language
MaRDI profile type: Publication
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 907666