普莱尔论时态词的自我中心性及其思想根源

Prior's comment on the egocentricity of tense words and its origin of thought

普莱尔是时态逻辑的创始人,在形式化时态命题时注意到一些时态词,如"现在"(now)、"那时"(then)、"以前"(ago)、"当前"(present)等,具有表面上的自我中心性。他认为这种自我中心性是假的,是可以消除的,这为时态逻辑的形式化清理了障碍。从"自我中心的"时间语词和"真的"的比较说明"自我中心性"是虚假的,时间词语也是可以省略的。普莱尔这一观点根源于他一贯的主张:命题真值可以随时间而变化,A时间序列比B时间序列更为根本。这也是他所认为的时态逻辑合法性的基础。

Arthur N.Prior,the founder of temporal logic,noticed that some indications of tense in formal tense propositions,such as“now”,“then”,“ago”,“present”,etc.,have apparent egocentric nature.Through analysis,he thought that this kind of egocentricity wasfalse and could be eliminated,which cleared away the obstacles for the formalization of temporal logic.According to the thought of Prior,this paper compares“egocentric”time words with“true”to illustrate that“egocentricity”is false and time words can be omitted.Prior’s idea is based on the philosophical assumption that the truth value of propositions can change with time,and that A time series is more fundamental than B time series.This is also the basis for what he considers the legality of the tense logic.