Programme
Allan Bäck
Kutztown University
Avicenna on Modal and Temporal Propositions
At times Avicenna seems to identify modality and temporality: ‘necessary’ and ‘always’. Other times he distinguishes them. Indeed, he has separate syllogistics for them: the modal and the hypothetical. Here I give a reconstruction of his theory. Avicenna does keep modality and temporality separate. However, they may intersect, as in his logic, with a categorical proposition having existential import, and, as in his metaphysics, with quiddities in themselves coming to exist in re. Then there can come about propositions about what things contingently and necessarily exist at different times. In this framework, Avicenna gives an account of tenses, as shen he deals with future contingent propositions and ampliation to times other than the present.