modality

modality
/moh dal"i tee/, n., pl. modalities.
1. the quality or state of being modal.
2. an attribute or circumstance that denotes mode or manner.
3. Also called mode. Logic. the classification of propositions according to whether they are contingently true or false, possible, impossible, or necessary.
4. Med. the application of a therapeutic agent, usually a physical therapeutic agent.
5. one of the primary forms of sensation, as vision or touch.
[1610-20; < ML modalitas. See MODAL, -ITY]

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logic
 in logic, the classification of logical propositions according to their asserting or denying the possibility, impossibility, contingency, or necessity of their content. Modal logic, which studies the logical features of such concepts, originated with Aristotle, was extensively studied by logicians in antiquity and the European Middle Ages, and, for the most part, was neglected after the Renaissance until revived in modern mathematical logic. The basic statement on this subject, presupposed in most contemporary discussions, is by C.I. Lewis and Cooper Harold Langford in Symbolic Logic (1932), which develops a modal system of “strict implication” for interpreting the logical force of “if . . . then.”

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Universalium. 2010.

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