Book description
MEANING AND NECESSITY- A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic By RUDOLF C
RNAP. PREFACE: The main purpose of this book is the development of a new
method for the semantical analysis of meaning, that is, a new method for
analyzing and describing the meanings of linguistic expressions. This
method, called the method of extension and intension, is developed by
modifying and ex tending certain customary concepts, especially those of
class and property. The method will be contrasted with various other
semantical methods used in traditional philosophy or by contemporary
authors. These other methods have one characteristic k corfflHbi Wrhey
all regard an expression in a language as a name of a concrete or
abstract entity. In contradistinc tion, the method here proposed takes
an expression, not as naming any thing, but as possessing an intension
and an extension. This book may be regarded as a third volume of the
series which I have called Studies in Semantics, two volumes of which
were published ear lier. However, the present book does not presuppose
the knowledge of its predecessors but is independent. The semantical
terms used in the present volume are fully explained in the text. The
present method for defining the L-terms for example, L-true, meaning
logically true, analytic differs from the methods discussed in the
earlier Introduction to Semantics. I now think that the method used in
this volume is more satisfactory for lan guages of a relatively simple
structure. After meaning analysis, the second main topic discussed in
this book is modal logic, that is, the theory of modalities, such as
necessity, contin gency, possibility, impossibility, etc. Various
systems of modal logic have been proposed by various authors. It seems
to me, however, that it is not possible to construct a satisfactory
system before the meanings of the modalities are sufficiently clarified.
I further believe that this clarification can best be achieved by
correlating each of the modal concepts with a cor responding semantical
concept for example, necessity with L-truth. It will be seen that this
method also leads to a clarification and elimination of certain puzzles
which logicians have encountered in connection with modalities. In the
Preface to the second volume of Studies in Semantics, I announced my
intention to publish, as the next volume, a book on modal logic
containing, among other things, syntactical and semantical systems which
combine modalities with quantification. The present book, however, is
not as yet the complete fulfilment of that promise it contains only
analyses and discussions of modalities, preliminary to the construc tion
of modal systems The systems themselves are not given here. In an
article published elsewhere see Bibliography, I have stated a calculus
and a semantical system combining modalities with quantification, and
have summarized some of the results concerning these systems. A more
comprehensive exhibition of results already found and those yet to be
found must be left for another time. The investigations of modal logic
which led to the methods developed in this book were made in 1942, and
the first version of this book was writ ten in 1943, during a leave of
absence granted by the University of Chi cago and financed by the
Rockefeller Foundation. To each of these insti tutions I wish to express
my gratitude for their help. Professors Alonzo Church and W. V. Quine
reaorhe first version and discussed it with me in an extensive
correspondence...
