About Truth and Possible Worlds: Pavel Tichý and His Logical and Philosophical Research

Abstract

SYNOPSIS This paper is devoted to the brilliant Czech logician and philosopher of language Pavel Tichý (1936–1994) who, after emigrating to New Zealand in 1970 and spending half his life there as a political refugee, committed suicide shortly before returning to his alma mater, Charles University in Prague, as Chair of the Department of Logic in the Faculty of Arts. After tracing a biographical profile of the Czech logician, the paper explains some of the central ideas of Tichý’s highly original theory, called Transparent Intensional Logic, while locating it in the wider context of the analytic philosophy of language. The paper concludes by highlighting the role played by Tichý’s intensional theory in advancing various disciplines, including artificial intelligence, with the aim of shedding light on the significant contributions of the Czech logician, who has yet to gain due recognition.