Traces the thinking about the nature and behavior of time through ancient and medieval philosophy to its demise during the Renaissance. Then describes the modern resurrection of temporal logic under the ministrations of A. N. Prior and others, and its applications in computer science and the study of natural languages. Interweaves the linguistic, philosophical, and computational aspects throughout. Assumes a background in formal logic. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Temporal Logic: From Ancient Ideas to Artificial Intelligence deals with the history of temporal logic as well as the crucial systematic questions within the field. The book studies the rich contributions from ancient and medieval philosophy up to the downfall of temporal logic in the Renaissance. The modern rediscovery of the subject, which is especially due to the work of A. N. Prior, is described, leading into a thorough discussion of the use of temporal logic in computer science and the understanding of natural language.
Temporal Logic: From Ancient Ideas to Artificial Intelligence thus interweaves linguistic, philosophical and computational aspects into an informative and inspiring whole.
