Arthur Prior

Last updated

ISBN 0-19-824157-7)
  • 1955, 1962. Formal Logic. Oxford University Press.
  • 1957. Time and Modality. Oxford University Press. Based on his 1956 John Locke lectures.
  • 1962. "Changes in Events and Changes in Things". University of Kansas.
  • 1967. Past, Present and Future. Oxford University Press.
  • 1968. Papers on Time and Tense. Oxford University Press.
  • 1971. Objects of Thought . Edited by P. T. Geach and A. J. P. Kenny. Oxford University Press.
  • 1976. The Doctrine of Propositions and Terms. Edited by P. T. Geach and A. J. P. Kenny. London: Duckworth.
  • 1976. Papers in Logic and Ethics. Edited by P. T. Geach and A. J. P. Kenny. London: Duckworth.
  • 1977. Worlds, Times and Selves. Edited by Kit Fine. London: Duckworth.
  • 2003. Papers on Time and Tense. Second expanded edition by Per Hasle, Peter Øhrstrøm, Torben Braüner & Jack Copeland. Oxford University Press.
  • References

    1. 1 2 3 4 Arthur Prior (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
    2. 1 2 "Tree – David Chalmers" . Retrieved 22 July 2020.
    3. Mary Prior and Arthur Prior, "Erotetic Logic", The Philosophical Review64(1) (1955): pp. 43–59 doi:10.2307/2182232.
    4. Andrew Bacon, John Hawthorne & Gabriel Uzquiano, "Higher-order free logic and the Prior-Kaplan paradox", Canadian Journal of Philosophy46(4–5): 493–541 (2016).
    5. McNamara, Paul. "Deontic Logic". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
    6. Adelaide Observer, 28 August 1875, p. 7.
    7. Copeland, B. Jack. Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.). "Arthur Prior". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2022 Edition). Archived from the original on 6 March 2023. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
    8. Copeland, B. Jack (2020), "Arthur Prior", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 10 March 2021, He was, at this stage of his life, obsessed with religion. He believed in the virgin birth and the voice of the devil, and was a devout Presbyterian (Prior 1940)...In later life, however, he described himself as having 'no religious beliefs' (Prior c.1967). In 1961, when Max Cresswell—then a logic student aged 21—met him for the first time, in Manchester, Prior announced: 'Mr Cresswell, isn't it a pity that God does not exist'.
    9. Cohen, L.J. (2006). Encyclopedia of philosophy. Donald M. Borchert (2nd ed.). Detroit: Thomson Gale/Macmillan Reference USA. ISBN   0-02-865780-2. OCLC   61151356. He was influenced for several years by the theologian Arthur Miller, who combined a strict adherence to Presbyterian doctrine with an equally strong support for socialism and opposition to nationalism. But Prior's pacifism weakened, and he served from 1942 to 1945 in the New Zealand air force. And the central focus of his interests gradually shifted - helped by an occasional bout of atheism - from theology to ethics and logic.
    10. 1 2 3 Per Hasle The Life of Prior (1914-69). A Brief Overview, accessed 8 June 2019
    11. 1 2 David Jakobsen (2019): A.N. Prior and ‘The Nature of Logic’, History and Philosophy of Logic, DOI: 10.1080/01445340.2019.1605479
    12. Jakobsen, D. (2017) The Significance of the Prior-Smart Correspondence for the Rise of Tense-Logic. In: Hasle, P., Blackburn, P. and Øhrstrøm, P.(eds.): Logic and Philosophy of Time: Themes from Prior. Aalborg University Press: pp. 63-82. (Logic and Philosophy of Time: Themes from Prior.
    13. Jakobsen, D. (2017) The Significance of the Prior-Smart Correspondence for the Rise of Tense-Logic. In: Hasle, P., Blackburn, P. and Øhrstrøm, P.(eds.): Logic and Philosophy of Time: Themes from Prior. Aalborg University Press: p 78. aauforlag.dk/UserFiles/file/Logic_and_Philosophy_of_Themes_from_Prior_ONLINE.pdf
    14. Prior, A.N., (1957) Time and Modality, Oxford University Press, p. vii
    15. Copeland, J., (1996) Prior's Life and Legacy, In Logic and Reality, Edited by Copeland, J. Oxford University Press, pp. 6)
    16. 1 2 Copeland, J (1996), Prior's Life and Legacy, p. 6.
    17. Copeland, B. Jack (2020), "Arthur Prior", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 9 March 2021, Of the four technical papers that marked the explosive beginning of Prior's career as a formal logician in 1952 (1952a-d), two concerned modal logic...His one recourse in the face of isolation was to read, and read he did. In logic he began by returning to W.E. Johnson. Next came J.N. Keynes's Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic and then (in his own phrase) he got stuck into Principia Mathematica. He learned a lot about the history of the subject from Peirce, whom he found 'unexpectedly magnificent'. An important discovery, in 1950, was Bochenski's Précis de Logique Mathematique (Bochenski 1949). Prior was fascinated by the 'very neat symbolic notation' due to Łukasiewicz, and before long he turned his back completely on the more usual Peano-Russell notation
    18. Copeland, B. Jack (2020), "Arthur Prior", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 9 March 2021, This paper was the curtain raiser to Prior's extensive study of Łukasiewicz's work on modality, and thereafter he read Łukasiewicz widely...To judge by his references in The Craft, his first encounters with modern symbolic modal logic must have been the pioneering explorations by Lewis in his and Langford's Symbolic Logic, Bochenski's chapter 'La Logique de la Modalité' in his La Logique de Théophraste, and Feys' article 'Les Systèmes Formalisés des Modalités Aristotéliciennes'...An important discovery, in 1950, was Bochenski's Précis de Logique Mathematique (Bochenski 1949). Prior was fascinated by the 'very neat symbolic notation' due to Łukasiewicz, and before long he turned his back completely on the more usual Peano-Russell notation.
    19. 1 2 Copeland, B. Jack (2020), "Arthur Prior", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 9 March 2021, This paper was the curtain raiser to Prior's extensive study of Łukasiewicz's work on modality, and thereafter he read Łukasiewicz widely—even material in Polish, saying 'the symbols are so illuminating that the fact that the text is incomprehensible doesn't much matter'.
    20. Lejewski, C. (2006). Borchert, David (ed.). Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2nd ed.). USA: Thomas Gale & MacMillan Reference. pp. 605–609. ISBN   0028657853. ...It must have stood high in the author's own estimation, for in 1995 he began translating it into English.
    21. Copeland, B. Jack (2020), "Arthur Prior", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 9 March 2021, Prior was fascinated by the 'very neat symbolic notation' due to Łukasiewicz, and before long he turned his back completely on the more usual Peano-Russell notation...Formal Logic is steeped in Polish notation and the axiomatic method, and typifies Prior's mature work.
    22. Copeland, B. Jack (2020), "Arthur Prior", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 9 March 2021, This idea that tensed propositions are liable to be true at one time and false at another became central to Prior's philosophy. In a summary of his views, composed nearly two decades later, he wrote: Certainly there are unchanging truths, but there are changing truths also, and it is a pity if logic ignores these, and leaves it … to comparatively informal 'dialecticians' to study the more 'dynamic' aspects of reality. (Prior 1996a: 46)
    23. Walter Carnielli; Claudio Pizzi (2008). Modalities and Multimodalities. Springer. p. 181. ISBN   978-1-4020-8589-5.
    24. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375917611_Kit_Fine%27s_Autobiography

    Further reading

    The nearest thing to a biography of Prior is:

    An excellent survey of Prior's life and achievement is:

    Ongoing research on the importance of Prior's philosophy and logic:

    Arthur Norman Prior
    Arthur Prior in Wakefield 1959 from son Martin Prior.png
    Prior in 1959
    Born(1914-12-04)4 December 1914
    Masterton, New Zealand
    Died6 October 1969(1969-10-06) (aged 54)
    Trondheim, Norway
    Spouses
    • Clare Hunter
    • Mary Wilkinson
    Relatives Ian Prior (half-brother)
    Education
    Education University of Otago (B.A., 1935; M.A., 1937) [1]
    Academic advisors J. N. Findlay [1]