On the Two Faces of Deontics: Semantic Betterness and Syntactic Priority

This paper looks at deontic logic as resulting from both a betterness ordering on states (i.e., a ‘deontic preference’) and a priority ordering on properties (i.e., a ‘law’ explicitly representing a standard of behavior). The correspondence between these two orderings offers a rich perspective from which to look at deontic scenarios and puzzles, and in particular at contrary-to-duties. The framework naturally lends itself to describing dynamics involving both orderings, thereby providing a new analysis of norm change as ‘betterness change’.

[1]  Leon van der Torre,et al.  Permission from an Input/Output Perspective , 2003, J. Philos. Log..

[2]  R. M. Hare,et al.  Norm and Action: A Logical Enquiry. , 1965 .

[3]  Raymond Reiter,et al.  On Inheritance Hierarchies With Exceptions , 1983, AAAI.

[4]  Guido Governatori,et al.  Changing Legal Systems: Abrogation and Annulment Part I: Revision of Defeasible Theories , 2008, DEON.

[5]  Patrick Girard,et al.  Modal logic for belief and preference change , 2008 .

[6]  Gabriella Pigozzi,et al.  Ten Philosophical Problems in Deontic Logic , 2007, Normative Multi-agent Systems.

[7]  Abhaya C. Nayak,et al.  Belief change as change in epistemic entrenchment , 1996, Synthese.

[8]  Mark A. Brown,et al.  Conditional obligation and positive permission for agents in time , 2000 .

[9]  Guido Boella,et al.  Permissions and obligations in hierarchical normative systems , 2003, ICAIL.

[10]  A. Montefiore.  NORM AND ACTION , 1964 .

[11]  Rohit Parikh,et al.  The Logic of Knowledge Based Obligation , 2006, Synthese.

[12]  D. D. Jongh,et al.  Preference, priorities and belief , 2009 .

[13]  Sheila Pantry,et al.  Changing for the Better , 2004 .

[14]  W. Gaertner.  A Primer in Social Choice Theory , 2006 .

[15]  Craig Boutilier,et al.  Conditional Logics of Normality: A Modal Approach , 1994, Artif. Intell..

[16]  Leon van der Torre,et al.  Input/Output Logics , 2000, J. Philos. Log..

[17]  L. Åqvist.  Good Samaritans, Contrary-to-Duty Imperatives, and Epistemic Obligations , 1967 .

[18]  James William Forrester,et al.  Gentle Murder, or the Adverbial Samaritan , 1984 .

[19]  Andrew J. I. Jones,et al.  Ideality, sub-ideality and deontic logic , 2004, Synthese.

[20]  Leendert van der Torre,et al.  Reasoning about obligations: defeasibility in preference-based deontic logic , 1997 .

[21]  Leon van der Torre,et al.  How to Combine Ordering and Minimizing in a Deontic Logic Based on Preferences , 1996, DEON.

[22]  L. Thorne McCarty.  Defeasible Deontic Reasoning , 1994, Fundam. Informaticae.

[23]  Guido Boella,et al.  Institutions with a hierarchy of authorities in distributed dynamic environments , 2008, Artificial Intelligence and Law.

[24]  Guido Governatori,et al.  Logic of Violations: A gentzen systems for reasoning with contrary-to-duty obligations , 2006 .

[25]  C. E. Alchourrón,et al.  The Expressive Conception of Norms , 1981 .

[26]  Audun Stolpe,et al.  A theory of permission based on the notion of derogation , 2010, J. Appl. Log..

[27]  Yao-Hua Tan,et al.  The Many Faces of Defeasibility in Defeasible Deontic Logic , 1997 .

[28]  B. Hansson.  An analysis of some deontic logics , 1969 .

[29]  Pierre-Yves Schobbens,et al.  Operators and Laws for Combining Preference Relations , 2002, J. Log. Comput..

[30]  John F. Horty,et al.  Deontic logic as founded on nonmonotonic logic , 1993, Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence.

[31]  O. K. Moore,et al.  The Formal Analysis of Normative Concepts , 1957 .

[32]  Robert Stalnaker.  A Theory of Conditionals , 2019, Knowledge and Conditionals.

[33]  Guido Governatori,et al.  Changing Legal Systems: Abrogation and Annulment. Part II: Temporalised Defeasible Logic , 2008, NORMAS.

[34]  Henry Prakken.  Two approaches to the formalisation of defeasible deontic reasoning , 1996, Stud Logica.

[35]  G. K. Chesterton,et al.  St. Thomas Aquinas , 2019, Grace, Predestination, and the Permission of Sin.

[36]  B. V. Fraassen.  Values and the Heart's Command , 1973 .

[37]  Yoav Shoham,et al.  A semantical approach to nonmonotonic logics , 1987, LICS 1987.

[38]  Principia Ethica , 1922, Nature.

[39]  Emiliano Lorini,et al.  Dynamic Context Logic , 2009, LORI.

[40]  Alf Ross,et al.  Directives and norms , 1968 .

[41]  Craig Boutilier.  Conditional Logics of Normality as Modal Systems , 1990, AAAI.

[42]  Johan van Benthem,et al.  Deontics = Betterness + Priority , 2010, DEON.

[43]  John F. Horty,et al.  Moral dilemmas and nonmonotonic logic , 1994, J. Philos. Log..

[44]  Guido Boella,et al.  Normative framework for normative system change , 2009, AAMAS.

[45]  William A. Woods,et al.  What's in a Link: Foundations for Semantic Networks , 1975 .

[46]  Roderick M. Chisholm,et al.  Contrary-To-Duty Imperatives and Deontic Logic , 1963 .

[47]  Richard Spencer-Smith,et al.  Modal Logic , 2007 .

[48]  Adam J. Grove,et al.  Two modellings for theory change , 1988, J. Philos. Log..

[49]  Liu.  Changing for the better : preference dynamics and agent diversity , .

[50]  David Lewis,et al.  Semantic Analyses for Dyadic Deontic Logic , 1974 .

[51]  Henry Prakken,et al.  Contrary-to-duty obligations , 1996, Stud Logica.