Meaning of 'modal'?

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Hi

I’ve tried to look this word up different places, but I just can’t find it anywhere and I was hoping some of you could help.

What does ‘modal’ mean, not as in ‘modal logic’, but ‘modal argument’, ‘modal analysis’ and ‘modal demand’?

I’m really greatful for your help. Thanks. :smiley:

Jack

2

Jacklind, dictionary.com is a wonderful thing.

modal
adj.

  1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a mode.
  2. Grammar. Of, relating to, or expressing the mood of a verb.
  3. Music. Of, relating to, characteristic of, or composed in any of the
    modes typical of medieval church music.
  4. Philosophy. Of or relating to mode without referring to substance.
  5. Logic. Expressing or characterized by modality.
  6. Statistics. Of or relating to a statistical mode or modes.

adj 1: (statistics) relating to or constituting the most frequent value in a distribution; “the modal age at which American novelists reach their peak is 30” [syn: modal(a), average] 2: of or relating to a musical mode; especially written in an ecclesiastical mode 3: relating to or expressing the mood of a verb; “modal auxiliary”

All my dictionaries contained the word. When you said you looked in different places, where exactly did you look?

3

a modal argument is an argument relating to possible worlds, in the same was modal logic is logic to do with possible worlds

4

Under the Toulmin model of argumentation analysis, “modal qualifiers” are terms that indicate the strength of a conclusion. In the following example, “most likely” is the modal qualifier: “90% of the people surveyed said that they don’t like fish, so you most likely don’t like fish.” Modal qualifiers are used extensively in advertising, as a means for companies to make claims without having to be held accountable for them. When you hear that a toothpaste kills “virtually” all bacteria, what does that mean? Could it be that 99.9% of bacteria are killed, or perhaps a figure closer to 10%? The toothpaste company that adheres to this from of statement has actually said nothing, but left you with the inpression that it has actually made very bold statement. Modal qualifers generally are used in a manner that weakens arguments, but terms such as “absolutely” will eliminate the ambiguity that other modal qualifiers generate.

5

Thanks a lot for all of your answers, it really helped me a lot. :smiley:

To Gadfly of ILP: It’s nice to be doubted in the first post you write on a forum, really makes one feel welcome. I hope I’m taking your last coment the wrong way, but you seem to have some sort of problem with my question!? If that’s the case, why did you bother to answer? Thanks for you reply anyway. I’m glad you have such detailed dictionaries. :slight_smile:

And this is where i looked for the word myself:

Encyclopædia Britannica

Britannica Student Encyclopedia

Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Dictionary of the Philosophy of Mind

The Ism Book

The Catholic Encyclopedia

A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names

The dictionary of foreign words

An encyclopedia just called: Philosophy

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

Good enough?

6

No, dictionary is not the same thing as an encyclopedia.

bonks you on the head

Sorry, Lack Jind, but we get a lot of people here who ask us to do their research for them. Get really uppity about that sort of stuff.