Positive modal logic

AbstractWe give a set of postulates for the minimal normal modal logicK+ without negation or any kind of implication. The connectives are simply ∧, ∨, □, ◊. The postulates (and theorems) are all deducibility statements ϕ ⊢ ψ. The only postulates that might not be obvious are $$\diamondsuit \varphi \wedge \square \psi \vdash \diamondsuit (\varphi \wedge \psi )\square (\varphi \vee \psi ) \vdash \square \varphi \vee \diamondsuit \psi $$ .It is shown thatK+ is complete with respect to the usual Kripke-style semantics. The proof is by way of a Henkin-style construction, with “possible worlds” being taken to be prime theories. The construction has the somewhat unusual feature of using at an intermediate stage disjoint pairs consisting of a theory and a “counter-theory”, the counter-theory replacing the role of negation in the standard construction. Extension to other modal logics is discussed, as well as a representation theorem for the corresponding modal algebras. We also discuss proof-theoretic arguments.