Philip Sink

Philip Sink

he/him

PhD Student in Logic, Computation, and Methodology in the Philosophy Department at Carnegie Mellon University.
My main area of study is Modal Logic, with a focus on Simplicial Semantics and applications to Distributed Computing.

Publications

You can also find my articles on my Google Scholar profile.

Prepublications

A Note on Proper Relational Structures

Published in arXiv, 2025

In this note we provide an algorithm for translating relational structures into “proper” relational structures, i.e., those such that there is no pair of worlds \(w\) and \(u\) such that \(w\) is accessible from \(u\) for every agent. In particular, our method of translation preserves many classical properties of relational structures, such as transitivity and the Euclidean property. As a result, this method of translation has many applications in the literature on Simplicial Semantics for modal logic, where the creation of proper canonical relational structures is a common step in proofs of completeness.

Recommended citation: Adam Bjorndahl and Philip Sink (2025). "A Note on Proper Relational Structures" arXiv
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Technical Reports

Modal Logic Without Possible Worlds: A New Semantics for Modal Logic in Simplicial Complexes

Published in NASA Technical Reports Server, 2022

In this paper, we set out to give a novel semantics for modal logic in simplicial complexes. The motivation for this semantics will be first the replacement of possible worlds with the idea of an “agent perspective”. After exploring some of the philosophical implications of such a move, we give a semantics based around this idea. Following this, we explore some of the more interesting consequences of such a system, in particular the soundness of an unusual axiom we call NU^*. After giving soundness and completeness, we conclude by exploring ways to weaken this axiom in our semantics.

Recommended citation: Philip Sink (2022). "Modal Logic Without Possible Worlds: A New Semantics for Modal Logic in Simplicial Complexes" NASA Technical Reports Server
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