Arthur Norman Prior (1914 Masterton, New Zealand - 1969 Trondheim, Norway) was one of the foremost logicians of the twentieth century. Entirely educated in New Zealand, and knowing only modest mathematics, he began teaching philosophy and logic at Canterbury University College in 1946, filling the vacancy created by Karl Popper's resignation and return to Europe. He became Professor in 1953. He spent the year 1956 on a visiting appointment at the University of Oxford, where he influenced E. J. Lemmon and corresponded with the adolescent Saul Kripke. From 1958 to 1962, he was Professor of philosophy at the University of Manchester. From 1962 until his death he was Fellow and Tutor in philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1966 he gave the John Locke lectures in philosophy at Oxford. His students include Max Cresswell, Kit Fine, and Robert Bull. Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, (but coming to mean thought or reason) is most often said to be the study of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a matter of controversy amongst philosophers. ... The University of Canterbury is a university located in the suburbs of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. ... Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994), was an Austrian-born British philosopher of science and professor at the London School of Economics. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Saul Kripke in 1983 Saul Aaron Kripke (b. ... The University of Manchester in Manchester, England is a university that was formed from the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester (commonly known as the University of Manchester before the merger) and UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) on 1 October 2004. ... Full name Balliol College Motto - Named after John de Balliol Previous names - Established 1263 Sister College St Johns College, Cambridge Master Andrew Graham (academic) Location Broad Street Undergraduates 403 Graduates 228 Homepage Boatclub Balliol College, founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford... 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Locke Free, full-text works by John Locke Works by John Locke at Project Gutenberg Works by Locke on the Web John Locke Online Bibliography Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry John Locke Bibliography John Locke Manuscripts Readable versions of the Essay...

Almost entirely self-taught in modern formal logic, Prior published his first paper on logic in 1952, when he was already 38 years of age, shortly after discovering the work of the Polish school, very little of whose work was then translated into English. He went on to employ Polish notation throughout his career. Prior (1955) distills much of his early teaching of logic in New Zealand. Prior stood out by virtue of his strong interest in the history of logic. He was one of the first English speaking logicians to come to terms with the nature and scope of the logical work of Charles Peirce, and to appreciate the distinction between de dicto and de re in modal logic. Charles Sanders Santiago Peirce (pronounced purse), September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914, was an American polymath. ... A modal logic, or (less commonly) intensional logic, is a logic that deals with sentences that are qualified by modalities such as can, could, might, may, must, possibly, necessarily, eventually, etc. ...

Prior taught and researched modal logic before Kripke proposed his possible worlds semantics for it, a time when the subject found little interested the English speaking world. He founded tense logic and made important contributions to intensional logic, particularly in his posthumous Prior (1971). In logic, the term temporal logic is used to describe any system of rules and symbolism for representing, and reasoning about, propositions qualified in terms of time. ... Modal logic, or (less commonly) intensional logic is the branch of logic that deals with sentences that are qualified by modalities such as can, could, might, may, must, possibly, and necessarily, and others. ...

References

• 1962, 1955. Formal Logic.
• 1967. Past, Present and Future
• 1971. Objects of Thought

The closest thing to a biography of Prior is

• Copeland, B. J., 1996.

Links

• Foundations of Temporal Logic
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry