This revised edition of the acclaimed book "First-Order Modal Logic" (first edition 1998) offers new and adapted chapters that reflect the latest scientific developments. The book is written in English and targets an advanced language level, suitable for self-study, teaching, and research in logic and philosophy.
Content and approach
Fitting and Mendelsohn extensively cover first-order modal logic, with an introduction to the propositional basis. Their methodology has three pillars:
- Semantics based on possible-worlds models
- Formal proofs via tableau methods
- Philosophical analyses of technical developments and their impact on well-known problems
Key themes
- Quantification: distinction between actualist and possibilist quantifiers
- Equality and the treatment of Frege's 'morning star/evening star' puzzle
- Existence and the logical challenges surrounding it
- Non-rigid constants and function symbols
- Predicate abstraction: clarifies ambiguities in the use of constants and function symbols
- Difference between non-existence and non-reference
- Definite descriptions from both Fregean and Russellian perspectives
Suitable for
The book is intended for readers with an advanced background in logic, suitable for academic teaching and self-study in philosophy, mathematical logic, and related disciplines.
Review of the first edition
The first edition was praised by the Bulletin of Symbolic Logic as an excellent and highly useful text with appropriate exercises, setting a high standard for comparable works. The book is highly recommended.
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