Table of Contents
Fetching ...

Modal definability in Kripke's theory of truth

James Walsh

Abstract

In Outline of a Theory of Truth, Kripke introduces some of the central concepts of the logical study of truth and paradox. He informally defines some of these -- such as groundedness and paradoxicality -- using modal locutions. We introduce a modal language for regimenting these informal definitions. Though groundedness and paradoxicality are expressible in the modal language, we prove that intrinsicality -- which Kripke emphasizes but does not define modally -- is not. We characterize the modally definable relations and completely axiomatize the modal semantics.

Modal definability in Kripke's theory of truth

Abstract

In Outline of a Theory of Truth, Kripke introduces some of the central concepts of the logical study of truth and paradox. He informally defines some of these -- such as groundedness and paradoxicality -- using modal locutions. We introduce a modal language for regimenting these informal definitions. Though groundedness and paradoxicality are expressible in the modal language, we prove that intrinsicality -- which Kripke emphasizes but does not define modally -- is not. We characterize the modally definable relations and completely axiomatize the modal semantics.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 20 sections, 26 theorems, 47 equations, 6 tables.

Key Result

Theorem 1

For all formulas $\varphi$ with at most $n$ variables, the following are equivalent:

Theorems & Definitions (78)

  • Theorem
  • Theorem
  • Remark 2.1
  • Remark 2.2
  • Definition 2.3
  • Remark 2.4
  • Definition 2.5
  • Definition 2.6
  • Definition 2.7
  • Definition 3.1
  • ...and 68 more