Abstract

This work examines various mediaeval and second scholastic logicians of the thirteenth through seventeenth centuries respecting their use of, and theories concerning, modal propositions which are either, higher order, or appear to be higher order but upon analysis turn out not so to be. ;The author concludes that higher order modal propositions were used as early as the thirteenth century. It was not until the fourteenth century, however, that propositions reflecting committment to the characteristic axiom schemata of higher order modal systems began to emerge. Indeed, the author finds some reason to discount some of the claims of contemporary scholarship regarding the extent to which fourteenth century logicians endorsed some of these axioms. It seems likely, however, that much of the discussion tangential to these axiom schemata provided a fertile seed bed for such later theories as arose. It remained, then, for various fifteenth century logicians explicitly to endorse--or reject--these axiom schemata, and to provide detailed discussion for such endorsement or rejection