1,543 research outputs found
The modal logic of arithmetic potentialism and the universal algorithm
I investigate the modal commitments of various conceptions of the philosophy
of arithmetic potentialism. Specifically, I consider the natural potentialist
systems arising from the models of arithmetic under their natural extension
concepts, such as end-extensions, arbitrary extensions, conservative extensions
and more. In these potentialist systems, I show, the propositional modal
assertions that are valid with respect to all arithmetic assertions with
parameters are exactly the assertions of S4. With respect to sentences,
however, the validities of a model lie between S4 and S5, and these bounds are
sharp in that there are models realizing both endpoints. For a model of
arithmetic to validate S5 is precisely to fulfill the arithmetic maximality
principle, which asserts that every possibly necessary statement is already
true, and these models are equivalently characterized as those satisfying a
maximal theory. The main S4 analysis makes fundamental use of the
universal algorithm, of which this article provides a simplified,
self-contained account. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the
philosophical differences of several fundamentally different potentialist
attitudes---linear inevitability, convergent potentialism and radical branching
possibility---are expressed by their corresponding potentialist modal
validities.Comment: 38 pages. Inquiries and commentary can be made at
http://jdh.hamkins.org/arithmetic-potentialism-and-the-universal-algorithm.
Version v3 has further minor revisions, including additional reference
The modal logic of set-theoretic potentialism and the potentialist maximality principles
We analyze the precise modal commitments of several natural varieties of
set-theoretic potentialism, using tools we develop for a general
model-theoretic account of potentialism, building on those of Hamkins, Leibman
and L\"owe, including the use of buttons, switches, dials and ratchets. Among
the potentialist conceptions we consider are: rank potentialism (true in all
larger ); Grothendieck-Zermelo potentialism (true in all larger
for inaccessible cardinals ); transitive-set potentialism
(true in all larger transitive sets); forcing potentialism (true in all forcing
extensions); countable-transitive-model potentialism (true in all larger
countable transitive models of ZFC); countable-model potentialism (true in all
larger countable models of ZFC); and others. In each case, we identify lower
bounds for the modal validities, which are generally either S4.2 or S4.3, and
an upper bound of S5, proving in each case that these bounds are optimal. The
validity of S5 in a world is a potentialist maximality principle, an
interesting set-theoretic principle of its own. The results can be viewed as
providing an analysis of the modal commitments of the various set-theoretic
multiverse conceptions corresponding to each potentialist account.Comment: 36 pages. Commentary can be made about this article at
http://jdh.hamkins.org/set-theoretic-potentialism. Minor revisions in v2;
further minor revisions in v
Coherence for Modalities
Positive modalities in systems in the vicinity of S4 and S5 are investigated
in terms of categorial proof theory. Coherence and maximality results are
demonstrated, and connections with mixed distributive laws and Frobenius
algebras are exhibited.Comment: 43 pages, minor addition
Epistemic Logic for Communication Chains
The paper considers epistemic properties of linear communication chains. It
describes a sound and complete logical system that, in addition to the standard
axioms of S5 in a multi-modal language, contains two non-trivial axioms that
capture the linear structure of communication chains.Comment: 7 pages, Contributed talk at TARK 2013 (arXiv:1310.6382)
http://www.tark.or
Attainable Knowledge
The article investigates an evidence-based semantics for epistemic logics in
which pieces of evidence are interpreted as equivalence relations on the
epistemic worlds. It is shown that the properties of knowledge obtained from
potentially infinitely many pieces of evidence are described by modal logic S5.
At the same time, the properties of knowledge obtained from only a finite
number of pieces of evidence are described by modal logic S4. The main
technical result is a sound and complete bi-modal logical system that describes
properties of these two modalities and their interplay
Moving up and down in the generic multiverse
We give a brief account of the modal logic of the generic multiverse, which
is a bimodal logic with operators corresponding to the relations "is a forcing
extension of" and "is a ground model of". The fragment of the first relation is
called the modal logic of forcing and was studied by us in earlier work. The
fragment of the second relation is called the modal logic of grounds and will
be studied here for the first time. In addition, we discuss which combinations
of modal logics are possible for the two fragments.Comment: 10 pages. Extended abstract. Questions and commentary concerning this
article can be made at
http://jdh.hamkins.org/up-and-down-in-the-generic-multiverse
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