Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each branch of modal logic to what its operators range over.
- Alethic
- Temporal
- Epistemic
- Deontic
- Situations compatible with what is known
- Situations in which all obligations are met
- Ways the world could have been
- Times, past and future
Hints
- Each branch reinterprets accessible worlds as a different kind of alternative.
- One of them ranges over ideal situations rather than genuine possibilities.
Show the answer
- Alethic → Ways the world could have been
- Temporal → Times, past and future
- Epistemic → Situations compatible with what is known
- Deontic → Situations in which all obligations are met
Why
The formal machinery is identical; only the interpretation of a "world" changes. Deontic worlds are ideal rather than possible, which is exactly why fails there.
Practise Modal Systems and Possible Worlds
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