Abstract
In this paper we introduce Prohairetic Deontic Logic (PDL), a preference-based dyadic deontic logic. An obligation ‘α should be (done) if β is (done)’ is true if (1) no ¬α∧β state is as preferable as an α∧β state and (2) the preferred β states are α states. We show that the different elements of this mixed representation solve different problems of deontic logic. The first part of the definition is used to formalize contrary-to-duty reasoning, that for example occurs in Chisholm’s and Forrester’s notorious deontic paradoxes. The second part is used to make dilemmas inconsistent. PDL shares the intuitive semantics of preference-based deontic logics without introducing additional semantic machinery such as bi-ordering semantics or ceteris paribus preferences.
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van der Torre, L.W.N., Tan, YH. (1998). Prohairetic Deontic Logic (PDL). In: Dix, J., del Cerro, L.F., Furbach, U. (eds) Logics in Artificial Intelligence. JELIA 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1489. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49545-2_6
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