Modal Concepts

Critical Thinking

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 Admin
Readings for this topic:
http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/meaning/ M06-
M07

Terminology: ‘iff’ means ‘if and only if’

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 Concept: Possibility
(1) It is possible to travel from Hong Kong to
London in less than one hour

True or false?
Physically possible (right now)?
False.
Logically possible? Might be possible in future.
True.
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 Possibility
(2) It is possible to travel faster than the speed of
light

True or false?
Physically possible (according to best current
theories)?
False
Logically possible?
True (e.g. films often imagine this situation). 4
 Possibility
(3) It is possible for a human to fly (without
using technology)?

True or false?
Biologically possible?
False.
Logically possible?
True.
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 Possibility
(4) It is possible for a square to have five sides

True or false?

Mathematically?
False
Logically?
False
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 Possibility
• As we can see, there are various kinds of
‘possibility’
• When we talk about possibility in this course,
we mean strict logical possibility.

• Logical possibility means the following…

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 Rough test of possibility
P is possible iff we can imagine p being true (in all its details)
P is impossible iff we cannot imagine p being true (in all its
details)
Warning 1: The test has to be used with care since
sometimes it might fail due to human limitations (consider:
is it possible to travel backwards in time?)
Warning 2: Again, keep in mind other kinds of possibilities.
In this course we are only talking about logical possibility (or
sometimes called: genuine possibility).

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 Possible situations
Def: A possible situation is a situation that could
logically obtain.

More precise definition:

s is a possible situation iff it is possible that s is a
situation that obtains.

We again use the imagination test…

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 Examples of possible situations
i) There are possible situations in which I take 20 hours to travel to
Paris

ii) There are possible situations in which I take 1 hour to travel to Paris.

iii) There are possible situations in which I can fly (without the use of
technology).

iv) There are possible situations in which I travel faster than the speed
of light.

v) There is no possible situation in which I make five-sided square.

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 Concept: Necessity
It is necessary that p iff, in every possible
situation s, p
Examples:
It is necessary that every square has four sides
It is necessary that 2 + 3 = 5
It is necessary that either snow is white or it is
not the case that snow is white
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 Propositions
Can you remember what we said propositions are?

Declarative statements express propositions.

Propositions make claims about the world that can be true or false: a
proposition is true if the world is how it claims it to be, whereas a
proposition is false if the world is not how it claims it to be.

Examples of propositions:
The proposition that Daniel Craig is an actor.
The proposition that rainbows are multicoloured.
The proposition that Hong Kong is in Africa.
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 Declarative Statements
What kind of statements are not declarative? Can you
remember examples?
“Go away!”
“Please pass the salt.”
“Hello.”
“What is the capital of Tanzania?”
“Ouch!”

Remember: The test for whether a sentence is a declarative

sentence: Ask whether it makes sense to say that the sentence
is true or false.
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 Concept: Properties
Properties: A property is a way a thing is or a
way a thing isn’t.
Examples of properties:
Being gold
Being an unmarried man
Having a son
Being happy

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 Properties: Necessary and Sufficient
Conditions

We have said that necessary and sufficient

conditions can help us understand relations
between propositions.

They can also help us understand relations

between properties.

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 Necessary conditions
Def: p is a necessary condition for q iff, necessarily, if
something has q then it has p
In other words: p is a necessary condition for q iff, in every
possible situation s, if something has q in s then it has p is
s.

Examples:
(7) Having four sides is necessary for being a square
(8) Being alive is necessary for being healthy
(9) Having the intention to kill someone or cause grievous
bodily harm is necessary for committing murder
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 Necessary conditions
(10) Eating meat is not necessary for being
healthy

Question: Why is (10) true? How can we

show/prove/argue that (10) is true?

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 Counterexamples
We can prove that (10) is true by proving that (10*) is false.
And we can prove that (10*) is false by finding a counterexample to
(10*).

(10) Eating meat is not necessary for being healthy

(10*) Eating meat is necessary for being healthy

A counterexample to (10*) = a possible situation where a thing X has

the property of being healthy but does not have the property of
eating meat.

Can anyone think such a possible situation?

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 Necessary conditions
(11) Being a land animal is not necessary for
being a mammal

Question: Why is (11) true?

How can we show/prove/argue that (11) is true?

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 Counterexamples
Likewise, we can prove that (11) is true by finding a counterexample to (11*).

(11) Being a land animal is not necessary for being a mammal

(11*) Being a land animal is necessary for being a mammal

A counterexample to (11*) = a possible situation where a thing X has the

property of being a mammal but does not have the property of being a land
animal.

Can anyone think such a possible situation?

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 Sufficient conditions
Def: p is a sufficient condition for q iff, necessarily, if
something has p then it has q

In other words: p is a sufficient condition for q iff in every

possible situation s, if something has p in s then it has q in
s

Examples:
(12) Being a square is sufficient for having four sides
(13) Being a grandfather is sufficient for being a father
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 Sufficient conditions
(14) Being alive is not sufficient for being healthy

Question: Is (14) true?

If it is true, how can we prove that (14) is true?

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 Counterexamples
We can prove that (14) is true by finding a counterexample to
(14*).

(14) Being alive is not sufficient for being healthy

(14*) Being alive is sufficient for being healthy

A counterexample to (14*) = a possible situation where a thing

X has the property of being alive but does not have the property
of being healthy.

Can anyone think such a possible situation?

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 Sufficient conditions
(15) Having a belief that it is raining is not
sufficient for knowing that it is raining.

Question: Is (15) true?

How can we prove that (15) is true?

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 Counterexamples
We can prove that (15) is true by finding a counterexample to (15*).

(15) Having a belief that it is raining is not sufficient for knowing that it is
raining.
(15*) Having a belief that it is raining is sufficient for knowing that it is raining.

A counterexample to (15*) = a possible situation where a thing X has the

property of loyal but does not have the property of being honest.

Can anyone think such a possible situation?

Note: The belief that it is raining might be false, such that it would not amount
to knowledge.

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 Describing how two properties are related
As we said before about necessary and sufficient
conditions…
Given any two properties p and q, there are four ways in
which they might be related to each other:

1. p is both necessary and sufficient for q

2. p is necessary but not sufficient for q
3. P is sufficient but not necessary for q
4. P is neither necessary nor sufficient for q

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 Examples
(16) Being an unmarried man is necessary and
sufficient for being a bachelor

(17) Oxygen is necessary but not sufficient for

human survival

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 Examples
(18) Having a son is sufficient but not necessary
for being a parent

(19) Being rich is neither necessary nor sufficient

for having a happy life

Once you understand these relations, assessing

their truth can become quite intuitive.
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 Modal properties
Propositions can have different modal properties, such as being
possible, being necessary, and being impossible.
Def: p is possible iff it is possible for p to be true
Def: p is impossible iff it is impossible for p to be true
Def: p is necessary iff it is necessary for p to be true

Examples:
The proposition that England beats China in a football match is
possible
The proposition that there is a five sided square is impossible
The proposition that every square has four sides is necessary
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 Entailment and consistency
Def: p entails q iff, necessarily, if p is true then q is
true
Def: p is consistent with q iff is is possible for p
and q to be both true
Def: p is inconsistent with q iff it is impossible for
p and q to be both true.

Can you remember how to identify these in a

truth table?
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 Examples
The proposition that Biden is President of the US and Xi
Jinping is President of China entails the proposition that Xi
Jinping is President of China.

The proposition that Carrie Lam is 6 feet tall is consistent

with the proposition that Carrie Lam lives in Scotland.

The proposition that Carrie Lam is exactly 6 feet tall is

inconsistent with the proposition that Carrie Lam is
exactly 5 feet tall

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 Consistent groups of propositions
Def: A group of propositions is consistent iff there is a possible situation
in which all its members are true

When we are dealing with properties, instead of propositions, we

cannot use a truth table to show consistency.
But the same principle applies: can they be true together?

Is the following group of propositions consistent?

The proposition that Hilary Clinton is dancing

The proposition that Hilary Clinton is an American woman
The proposition that no American woman is dancing

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 Hint to how to answer this question
We can prove that a group of propositions are inconsistent if we can simply
think of a situation where they can’t all possibly be true together.

Can you think of a possible situation where all the following propositions are
true?

(1) The proposition that Hilary Clinton is dancing

(2) The proposition that Hilary Clinton is an American woman
(3) The proposition that no American woman is dancing

No, there is not a situation where they can all be true together. If (1) and (2)
are true, then (3) must be false.
Which are consistent?

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 How about the following…
Can you think of a possible situation where all the following
propositions are true?

(1) The proposition that Hilary Clinton is dancing

(2) The proposition that Hilary Clinton is an American woman
(3) The proposition that no American woman is dancing on Earth

This time YES, they are consistent…

Perhaps Hilary Clinton is dancing on the moon!

Make sure to read the examples carefully.

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