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On the Usefulness of Modal Logic in Axiomatizations of Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Aldo Bressan
Aldo Bressan*
Affiliation:
Università di Padova
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Extract

Natural sciences such as geology, geography, and astronomy are mainly interested in describing features of the real world. Other sciences such as physics and chemistry deal with certain classes of possible phenomena, no matter whether they really taken place or not. The former sciences are based on the latter, so that all are interested in possible phenomena or worlds.

Roughly speaking, on the one hand there are some axiomatic theories - e.g. theories of classical mechanics similar to Newton's presentation of mechanics - that speak of phenomena occurring in the typical possible world, without considering basic relations involving several of these worlds. These theories do not aim very much at reducing primitive concepts. On the other hand, to make assertions involving possible worlds is practically compulsory in theories that include the definition of some constitutive magnitudes, i.e. magnitudes that characterize the reaction of a system S to a situation Σ possibly depending on parameters.

Type
Part VIII Symposium: Modality and the Analysis of Scientific Propositions
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1972 , 1972 , pp. 285 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © 1974 by D. Reidel Publishing Company

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Footnotes

*

This conference was prepared in the sphere of activity of the research group for mathematical physics of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, in 1971-72 and 1972-73.

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