Temporal Logic: From Ancient Ideas to Artificial Intelligence

This text deals with the history of temporal logic as well as the crucial systematic questions within the field. The book studies the 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. The book thus aims to interweave linguistic, philosophical and computational aspects into an informative whole.