From possibility to probability

British discussions on modality in the nineteenth century

Ilkka Niiniluoto

pp. 275-309

in: Simo Knuuttila (ed), Modern modalities, Berlin, Springer, 1988

Abstract

The latter half of the nineteenth century was a heroic period for formal logic. The new mathematical tools for analysing the art of reasoning liberated logicians from their traditional chains. This event gave birth to the modern research programme of mathematical logic, which has ever since been able to keep up a high rate of progress with a wealth of novel techniques, results, and applications.