Modalities: Philosophical Essays - Tapa dura

Informed by her earlier ground-breaking axiomatizations of quantified modal logic, the papers collected here by the distinguished philosopher Ruth Barcan Marcus cover much ground in the development of her thought from 1961 to 1990. The first essay introduces themes initially viewed as iconoclastic, such as the necessity of identity, the directly referential role of proper names as "tags, " the Barcan Formula about the interplay of possibility and existence, and alternative interpretations of quantification. Marcus also addresses the putative puzzles about substitutivity and about essentialism. The collection also includes influential essays on moral conflict, on belief and rationality, and on some historical figures. Though many of her views have been incorporated into current theories, others remain part of continuing philosophical debate.

Ruth Barcan Marcus is Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Philosophy at Yale University.