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prerequisite for the use of the axiomatic approach. etre,'" The Journal of Symbolic Logic, 20 (March,
For an especially clear discussion of the sense 1955), pp. 91-92.
in which systems of formal logic (including 8 A. N. Prior, Time and Modality, Oxford: The
26 Traditionally, commands have not been re- Logic, New York: The Century Company, 1932.
garded as propositions, primarily on the grounds 32 M. J. Alban, "Independence of the Primitive
that we are not inclined to ask of a command such Symbols of Lewis's Calculi of Propositions," The
as "Mail this letter" whether it is true or false. Journal of Symbolic Logic, 8 (March, 1943), pp.
Certain writers have evinced an extreme reluctance, 25-26.
for philosophical and grammatical reasons, to ad- 33 Sdren Hallden, "Results Concerning the De-
mit any very close relation between propositions cision Problem of Lewis's Calculi S3 and S6," The
and commands. In our opinion this is an open Journal of Symbolic Logic, 14 (January, 1950),
question, to be decided by constructing logical pp. 230-236.
systems whose utility can be tested in scientific 34 Von Wright, An Essay in Modal Logic, op.
practice. cit.
27 See for example R. M. Hare, The Language 35 Robert Feys, "Les Logiques Nouvelles des
of Morals, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1952. Modalit6s," Revue Neo-scholastique de Philosophie,
28 In formalizing Bohnert's proposal, care would 40 (November, 1937), pp. 517-553, and 41 (May,
be required to avoid, if possible, such counterintui- 1938), pp. 217-252.
tive results as those mentioned by Menger, loc. cit., 360f course there are other important aspects
p. 60. of normative systems; there are, for example subtle
29 John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, problems concerning the relations between possi-
Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, Prince- bilities for action, and beliefs about these possibili-
ton: Princeton University Press, 1947. ties. There are a number of ways in which the
This point should not be construed as meaning parison with definitions 1-3. We here use "O"' in-
that "acts" are unimportant, or have somehow stead of "O", etc., to distinguish these notions
been done away with; taking propositions as ele- from those of von Wright. An analogue of von
ments of the universe of discourse, is simply an Wright's primitive notion of permission is defined
alternative interpretation, worth investigating. There in O'M* as follows:
may well be others, e.g., propositional functions. P'p = df Map & M (p & -S)