Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Page 3 CounterFactuals - Note

Mixing modalities, or "possiblities" extended to include, the Necessary and Possible; temporal (past and future), epistemic, deontic, etc. can get quite complex. This complexity affects not only literature, art, music, poetry, etc, but also is relevant in "social engineering". Thus what kind of future (past) world might we believe in, or know about, or want specific moral views to be present, etc. This page will provide a short discussion about these topics.

In the standard view of "modally possible worlds of discourse", different worlds of discourse are accessible through an accessibility relationship "λ", or all worlds of discourse are accessible. Another approach is that potentially, ideas or notions provide possiblities, lead to new ways of looking at things. In this view, propositions hint at or provide the ferment needed to see different possibilities. In this view, propositions are used not only deductively, but induce new propositions. Thus the collective propositions "p" in a given world "Wi" underlie the accessibility relationship "λ" to world "Wj".

Formal logics with modalities, should be looked upon more in a sense of "induction" than only being limited to "deduction". Once the world of possibilities is considered, the accessibility relation "λ" should no longer be viewed as simply a mathematical abstraction that interelates different worlds Wj. The accessibility relationship now goes beyond aspects of "provability". The accessibility relationship now supports more than mere access to parts of a proof (parts of a proof in the sense of "semantic tableaux" of E. Beth 1), but may now even "suggest" new modal categories, or even new propositions that would previously not have been "accessible". Once these new propositions or modal categories are suggested (by content, not mere formality), then a purely formal proof may continue.

As an example, the "idea" of concentrating industrial development to only one area of the globe as took place during the development of slavery in England, now suggests an entirely different view of industrial development. This can lead to the idea of employing labour in different parts of the world but now in an entirely different way: to employing all labour in one continent in a limited fashion (for example, Colonialism). Now one has "accessibility" to a new method of exploitation. This also suggests new kinds of moral questions (deontically modal questions), new ideas of future development (temporally modal questions), and new beliefs (modality of belief or knowledge) that have not previously been asked. Thus new ideas (propositions and modalities) may be induced. All these induced ideas provide access to new "formal" propositions.

Thus the "accessibility" relationship is in fact supported by new ways of thinking, new propositions, and new modalities, all of which are socially or even scientifically based and even motivated. The accessibility relationship is in this sense, not purely "formal", but is based upon "content". After this aspect of "induction" has taken place, a formal treatment more suitable to a view of deduction may progress.

The political poetry of the Chartists such as James Linton, is an example of the ability to provide access to a new social view, based upon the extremes of deprivation that are new to the revolution caused by a new industrial society. The "new" idea of literacy as now being political in content, leading to free libraries, in which the previously powerless workers selects their own literature in their own libraries is a result, leading to new power relationships. The new possibile worlds (propositions) thus created are yet still continuing to unfold. Similarly, new forms of art, capable of showing the process of "development" are consciously developed, as expemplified by the triptych by artist August Leopold Egg (to be examined in the next few pages). These new modalities not only suggest new ideas, a new logic, but also a new rhetoric (in the sense of Aristotle and Ramon Lull), as painting has an especial appeal (persuasion) to new audiences as well. Thus the real "accessibility" relationship is founded not only upon new ideas that are induced, but a new way to persuade, a new rhetoric based upon new modes of induction, a modalized rhetoric!

  1. Page 3 Note, page A
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1  Just as the "language" of well formed formulae may be Chomsky type-1 (context-sensitive), and not be of the form of a tree, so also Semantic-Tableaux may require some form of context-sensitivity and not be able to use a tree form, using tableaux at different places or levels in a proof as context. "Semantic-Tableaux" constitutes a language.

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