The boring sinners dream

I snore.

And as I sing, aloud.

May the truth in all days that pass.

In my sorrow,

in my embellished survival,

I am a victim to no one.

This is my purpose.

- Marco

The very root of desire implies a lack of something. 

identity in symbols for consequence in naming (what is: use of meaning in language)

 

Modal Logic

¹

Modal logic is a type of logic used to represent statements about necessity and possibility. It plays a significant role in philosophy and related fields, helping to understand concepts such as knowledge, obligation, and causation.

Key Principles

Modal logic introduces modal operators such as ◻ (necessity) and ◇ (possibility). For instance, the modal formula ◇P can be read as "possibly P," while ◻P can be read as "necessarily P". These operators allow modal logic to express statements that are not possible in classical logic.

Syntax and Semantics

The syntax of modal logic includes non-modal formulas and modal ones. For example, if P is a formula, then ◇P and ◻P are also formulas. The semantics of modal logic is based on possible worlds. A formula's truth value at one possible world can depend on the truth values of other formulas at other accessible possible worlds.

Relational Semantics

In relational semantics, the truth of a formula is determined relative to a possible world. For a formula containing a modal operator, its truth value can depend on what is true at other accessible worlds. For example, ◇P is true at a world if P is true at some accessible possible world, while ◻P is true at a world if P is true at every accessible possible world.

Applications

Modal logic has various applications beyond its original philosophical motivation. It is used in game theory, moral and legal theory, web design, multiverse-based set theory, and social epistemology. It also has applications in computer science, particularly in the modeling of computer operations and proving theorems about them.

Important Considerations

Modal logic can be extended to other kinds of logic by introducing rules analogous to those for modal operators. For instance, modal predicate logic includes formulas such as ◇∃xP(x). Different systems of modal logic are defined using frame conditions, such as reflexive, symmetric, transitive, serial, and Euclidean frames.

In summary, modal logic is a powerful tool for representing and reasoning about necessity and possibility, with wide-ranging applications in philosophy, computer science, and beyond.

Saul A. Kripke (Philosopher)

 

About the author (1980)

Born in Bay Shore, New York, the son of a rabbi (Myer Samuel) and a writer (Dorothy Karp), Saul Kripke demonstrated his genius to his startled parents when he was only 3 years old. He not only drew the logical consequences of ordinary beliefs, but also solved intricate problems in mathematics. As a child prodigy, he was presented by his father to distinguished mathematicians and philosophers, who were overwhelmed by his talents. His father introduced him at the age of 15 to a group of eminent mathematicians, headed by Haskell B. Curry. From his debut grew his first published article, "A Completeness Theorem in Modal Logic," which appeared in the Journal of Symbolic Logic. Kripke's boyhood genius did not flicker out in the 1960s, when he studied at Harvard, Oxford, Princeton and Rockefeller University or, more accurately, when he worked independently at these institutions and had occasional contact with his surroundings. His academic training was unique. He ascended directly to full professorships, without ever earning a doctorate. In fact, his highest academic degree was a B.A. from Harvard University, which he received in 1962. Kripke never earned a doctorate, because no academician could be found to teach him. Consequently, the universities let him alone and admitted him to their faculties when he said he was ready. Slow to publish his lectures, Kripke nonetheless released a few articles, which he published exclusively in technical journals of philosophy and mathematics. So far his work has extended the boundaries of the most abstruse field of analytic philosophy, modal logic. He is esteemed for having invented the quantitative formulations of modality and for having opened up the ontological territory of possible worlds. At the age of 36, he was appointed James McCosh Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. Kripke's awards include a Fulbright Fellowship (1962), Guggenheim Fellowship (1968), and a Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (1981). His work, esoteric as it may seem to a public acquainted with such "social" philosophers as John Dewey or Jean-Paul Sartre, has created new fields in mathematical set theory and modal logic, which will generate Ph.D. theses for years to come.

Bibliographic information

Title	Naming and Necessity
Author	Saul A. Kripke
Edition	illustrated, reprint, revised
Publisher	Harvard University Press, 1980
ISBN	0674598466, 9780674598461

Nocturne III —José Asunción Silva

 Nocturne III 

          A night
A night full of hushings, of the curled wool of perfume
     And incanting wing,
          A night
Where phantasmagoric glowworms bump in nuptial blackness,
At our own pace, linked together,
          Mute and glittering,
As if we could portend ruin,
And your hot fibers all slopped and tangled,
Along the path strung with flowers, which crosses emptiness,
          We walked,
          And the disc of silvery water
In tumbling azure splashed and laughed,
          And your shadow,
          Fine and dripping,
          And my shadow,
Which the rays of the moon nailed down
On the sad sands
Of the pathway, our shadows joined
And became one
          One
          One
And they became one horn of shadow!
And they became one horn of shadow!
And they became one horn of shadow!
            Tonight,
          Here I am, myself,
Filled with the black cakes of loneliness and of your death,
Separated from you by all—time, tomb, earth—
          And by the nothing
          Where no voice can reach;
          Mortally there and silent,
          Along the path I roamed,
And the dogs’ snapping at moonlight rang out
          At the splendor
          And the chirping
          Of the frogs—
A chill. It was the chill that in the tomb
Your face and hands sang with
          Under a starry vibrance
          Of funereal linens.
It was the grave’s face of pebbles, death’s slick,
          It was the coldness of nothing.
          And my shadow
          Frayed by wild silver,
          Walked alone,
          Walked alone,
          Walked alone amid nothings,
          And your shadow, trim and quick,
          Fine and dripping,
As in that luxuriant spring night expiring,
As in that night full of hushings, of the curled wool of perfume
     And incanting wing,
          Came and creased through mine
          Came and creased through mine
          Came and creased through mine…Oh the shadows fuse!
Oh the puzzle pieces of the shadows interlocking,
Oh the shadows chew through each other across zodiacs of sorrows
     And tears.

—José Asunción Silva (trans. Robert Fernandez)

Nocturne Iii Poem by Jose Asuncion Silva

 One night

one night all full of murmurings, of perfumes and music of wings;
one night
in which fantastic fireflies burnt in the humid nuptial shadows,
slowly by my side, pressed altogether close, silent and pale,
as if a presentiment of infinite bitternesses
agitated you unto the most hidden fibers of your being,
along the flowering path which crosses the plain
you walked;
and the full moon
in the infinite and profound blue heavens scattered its white light;
and your shadow,
fine and languid,
and my shadow
projected by the rays of the moon,
upon the sorrowful sands
of the path, joined together;
and they became one,
and they became one,
and they became only one long shadow,
and they became only one long shadow,
and they became only one long shadow....

Tonight
alone; my soul
full of the infinite bitternesses and agonies of your death,
separated from you by time, by the tomb and by distance,
by the infinite blackness
where our voice cannot reach,
silent and alone
along the path I walked ...
And the barking of dogs at the moon could be heard,
at the pale moon,
and the chirping
of the frogs ...
I felt cold. It was the coldness that in your alcove
your cheeks and your temples and your adoréd hands possessed
within the snowy whiteness
of the mortuary sheets.
It was the coldness of the sepulcher, it was the ice of death,
it was the coldness of oblivion.
And my shadow,
projected by the rays of the moon,
walked alone,
walked alone,
walked alone along the solitary plain;
and your shadow, svelte and agile,
fine and languid,
as in that warm night of springtime death,
as in that night full of murmurings, of perfumes and music of wings,
approached and walked with mine,
approached and walked with mine,
approached and walked with mine ... Oh, the shadows intertwined!
Oh, the corporeal shadows united with the shadows of the souls!
Oh, the seeking shadows in those nights of sorrows and of tears!

Jose Asuncion Silva

📼 Un Poeta (2025)

In the film Un Poeta (2025), directed by Simón Mesa Soto, the protagonist Oscar Restrepo (played by Ubeimar Rios) is obsessed with the famous Colombian poet José Asunción Silva.

Oscar idolizes Silva as the ultimate standard of poetic virtuosity in Colombia. Throughout the film, his obsession is highlighted by his frequent references to Silva—who is famously depicted on the Colombian 5,000-peso banknote—and his belief that no other poet in the country has ever reached Silva's level of greatness. This obsession serves as a tragicomic contrast to Oscar's own struggles as a "second-rate" or faded poet living in poverty and seeking recognition in the modern world.

About José Asunción Silva:

• He was a key figure in the Modernismo movement in Latin American literature.
• His most famous work is Nocturno III, written after the death of his sister.

========================

in the film un Poeta (2025) makes a short reference to Aristotle. What is it?

In the film Un Poeta (2025), the short reference to Aristotle occurs during a tragicomic exchange where the protagonist, Oscar Restrepo, laments the "economic uselessness" of high art and philosophy.

The reference is used to highlight the absurdity of Oscar's poverty compared to his intellectual aspirations:

• The Context: Oscar is lecturing Yurlady, a teenager who remains largely indifferent to his poetic theories while she mindlessly eats a bag of snacks (chips/fries).
• The Comparison: Oscar contrasts the status of famous Colombian writers with that of the classical philosopher. He points out that the poet José Asunción Silva is honored on the 5,000-peso banknote and Gabriel García Márquez on the 50,000-peso note—giving them a tangible, monetary "value" in society.
• The Punchline: He notes with bitterness that Aristotle, the very founder of poetic theory, has no such status. He tells Yurlady that while Silva and Gabo are literally "worth money," "with Aristotle, you can't even buy a bag of potatoes" (or una bolsa de papas in the original Spanish).

This reference is a key example of the film's use of bathos—the sudden transition from a lofty, sublime topic (Aristotelian philosophy) to the mundane and trivial (a bag of chips). It reinforces Oscar's character as a man trapped between his reverence for "immortal" genius and the harsh, hungry reality of his daily life.

Tip

This scene is often cited by critics as a highlight of the film's dark humor, illustrating Oscar's desperate attempt to find "gravitas" in a world that only values art when it can be exchanged for goods.

==============================

In the film un Poeta (2025) what are the words of the poem Oscar Restrepo uses to write with. It is a poem that is revealed at the end of this film. What is it?

In the film Un Poeta (2025), directed by Simón Mesa Soto, the poem Oscar Restrepo uses to write with—and which is revealed in its entirety at the end—is actually the work of his protégé, Yurlady.

Throughout the film, Oscar struggles with his own "poetic pretensions" and his obsession with the virtuosity of José Asunción Silva, unable to produce anything he deems worthy. He attempts to mentor Yurlady, a teenager from a humble background, hoping to "channel his literary ambitions" through her. While he lectures her on the "wider social concerns of poetry" and the need for "gravitas," Yurlady remains seemingly indifferent.

However, at the poetry festival organized by his friend Efraín Mendoza, it is revealed that Yurlady has actually written a powerful, raw poem that eclipses Oscar's own efforts. The "reveal" at the end of the film is the text of this poem, which Oscar himself ultimately uses to define his own identity as a poet, realizing that her natural, unpretentious talent is what he had been searching for all along.

The words of the poem are a reflection of her reality, famously containing the lines:

"Un poeta no dice 'estás hermosa'.
Un poeta dice que la luz es un accidente que ocurre en tu cara
para que yo pueda ver la sombra de mi propio destino."

(A poet doesn't say "you are beautiful." / A poet says that light is an accident that happens on your face / so that I can see the shadow of my own destiny.)

This poem serves as the emotional climax, shifting the film from a dark comedy about a failed artist into a poignant meditation on the true source of inspiration and the "poetic injustice" of recognition.

Tip

The poem is often interpreted as the film's "happy poem" that Oscar was trying to write—though it is ultimately written by Yurlady, it is the words Oscar chooses to carry with him as his final declaration of what it means to be a poet.