试析普莱尔基于混合时态逻辑对其时间观的辩护

An analysis on Prior's Defense of His Time View Based on Hybrid Tense Logic

普莱尔既是时态逻辑的创始者,又是混合逻辑的创始者。普莱尔接受了麦克塔加关于时间A-理论和B-理论的区分,认为A-理论中"过去、现在和将来"等概念比B-理论中的"在先、在后和同时"等概念更为基本,并且不承认时间点的本体论地位。普莱尔从这种时间观出发,在致力于将无时态的一阶逻辑归约到时态逻辑的过程中,提出了混合时态逻辑,从而对自己的时间观进行辩护。本文在对普莱尔的辩护过程进行详细分析的基础上,从现代模态逻辑对应理论的角度指出,普莱尔的辩护并不成功,同时讨论了普莱尔的方法论给我们带来的启示。

A.N.Prior,the founder of both tense logic and hybrid logic,accepts McTaggart’s distinction between A-theory and B-theory of time.He holds that the concepts of“Past,Present,and Future”inA-theory are more fundamental than the notions of“Before,After,and Simultaneous with”inB-theory,and does not recognize the ontological status of time points.From this viewpoint of time,Prior proposed a hybrid tense logic to defend his own view of time in the process of reducing the first-order tenseless logic to tense logic.On the basis of a detailed analysis of Prior’s defense process,this paper points out that Prior’s defense is not successful from the perspective of the correspondence theory in modern modal logic.Finally,it points out the inspiration of Prior’s methodology.