To be and not to be: Dialectical tense logic (Q791513)

The paper concerns change and contradiction. In the first part of the paper it is argued that if there is a discrete change from p being true to \(\neg p\) being true then, under certain conditions, \(p\wedge \neg p\) is true at the instant of change. The second part of the paper specifies a formal logic which accommodates this possibility. It is a tense logic based on the author's paraconsistent logic [J. Philos. Logic 8, 219-241 (1979; Zbl 0402.03012)]. Soundness and completeness are proved, the latter by the canonical model construction. The final part of the paper discusses a certain continuity principle due to Leibniz. When this principle is incorporated in the formal semantics, using a topology on the set of index times, it allows a semantical proof that change cannot occur without contradictions being realised.