24.

244 - Modal Logic Fall, 2009

FINITE MODELS

A modal logic has the finite model property if for any consistent sentence, there is a finite model for the system that satisfies the sentence. Let  be a set of sentences that contains all the subsentences of any sentence in it. Two possible worlds x and y in a model will be
-indiscernible if for all 
, x
v() iff y
v(). For any possible world x, let [x] = {y: y is -indiscernible from x}. If  is finite, then for any model, there will be a finite number of such equivalence classes. A filtration of a model W.R,v through  is a model W*, R*, v* meeting the following conditions: 1. For all x
W, there is exactly one y
W* such that y
[x] 2. For all x
W* and all sentence letters , x
v*() iff x
v() 3. For any x
W*, if xRy, then for the z
W*[y], xR*z 4. If

 and x
v(
), then xR*y only if y
v(). If W*, R*, v* is a filtration of W, R, v through  and 
, then for any x
W*, x
v*() iff x
v(). For any sentence , the set  of all the subsentences of  (including  itself) is a finite set. Any filtration through  of a model that satisfies  will be a finite model that satisfies . So if we can show that for arbitrary finite , the canonical model for a given system has a filtration through  that is a model for the system, that will show that the system satisfies the finite model property. The work to be done is to find a way of defining R* that satisfies conditions 3 and 4. This is easy in some cases. If the system is K, then we can simply use 3 to define R*: For all x,y
W*, xR*y iff xRz for some z
[y]. It follows that condition 4 is satisfied, and since the semantics for K puts no constraints on R, that is all that needs to be shown. The same definition will work for the system T, since if R is reflexive, then R*, defined this way, will be so as well. But this definition will not work for all systems. It would not, for example work for S4 or K4, since R* might be nontransitive even if R is transitive. But one can show that most systems, including K4, S4, S4.2, S4.3, S5 have the finite model property by finding an appropriate definition that satisfies both conditions.

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24.244 Modal Logic

Fall 2009

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