Cumulativity, Identity and Time in Deontic Logic

Issue title: Deontic Logic in Computer Science

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Parent, Xavier

Affiliations: Department of Philosophy, University of Aix-Marseille I, Aix-en-Provence, France; e-mail: xp@up.univ-aix.fr

Abstract: We first analyse the future-orientated account of conditional obligation as put forth by David Makinson. We show that the introduction of the futurity dimension is not indispensable in the elimination of the identity principle. This leads us to a more general observation. Most systems of dyadic deontic logic either accept both the identity principle and the cumulativity condition, or exclude both. We then develop an account of defeasible conditional obligation based on the ``and next" operator, as a solution to this dilemma.

Keywords: Preferential models, defeasible deontic logic, futurity

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 48, no. 2-3, pp. 237-252, 2001