Temporal logic and computer science

Abstract

The relevance of temporal logic within computer science was realised in the course of the 1970s. Temporal logic has by now become an established discipline within this science, but the first researchers to take up the connection were not acquainted with Prior’s tense logic. The initial studies in the field were based on Temporal Logic by N. Rescher and A. Urquhart [1971]. This book was in fact dedicated to the memory of Arthur Prior, and at any rate computer scientists would in due course also begin to study Prior’s own works on tense logic. The above quotation makes it clear that one decade earlier it had occurred to Prior himself that his tense logic might be useful in computer science.