Gordon Monro — The Necessary and the Possible: A Logical Found Object

The Necessary and the Possible: A Logical Found Object consists of fifteen A3 panels. Fourteen of the panels show the fourteen possibilities for ways of being true or false (“modalities”) that occur in the logical system known as the modal logic S4; the remaining panel gives a key to the fourteen modalities.

Consideration of the meaning of "necessary" and "possible" goes back to the ancient Greeks, and continued in philosophical and theological discussions; Leibniz used the idea that possible worlds are ideas in the mind of God in his discussion of the problem of evil. Early in the twentieth century, formal systems for working with notions of "necessary" and "possible" were developed under the name of "modal logic"; the approach using diagrams of possible worlds was developed in the 1950s and 1960s. "The Necessary and the Possible" presents the fourteen modalities of S4 and their notations as a logical found object.

Digital prints. Fifteen panels, each 42 x 29.7 cm (H x W). Edition of 6 for each panel. Date: 2018.

Slideshow