Abstract
We present a refinement of Anderson’s reduction of deontic logic to modal logic with only alethic modalities. The refined proposal contextualizes the Andersonian sanction constant s by replacing it with a unary sanction operator S that is dependent on the concrete normative requirement that is violated. A formula S B is then for instance interpreted as “B causes a sanction” or as “B provides a reason for (the applicability of) a sanction”. Due to its modified sanction operator, the resulting logic DSL invalidates some instances of the inheritance principle. This gives rise to new interesting features. For instance, DSL consistently allows for the presence of conflicting obligations. Moreover, it provides novel insights in various central ‘paradoxes’ in deontic logic such as the Ross paradox, the paradox of the good Samaritan, and Forrester’s ‘gentle murderer’ paradox.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson, A.R.: The reduction of deontic logic to alethic modal logic. Mind 67, 100–103 (1958)
Anderson, A.R.: The formal analysis of normative systems. In: Rescher, N. (ed.) The Logic of Decision and Action, pp. 147–213. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh (1967)
Åqvist, L.: Deontic logic. In: Gabbay, D., Guenthner, F. (eds.) Handbook of Philosophical Logic, 2nd edn., vol. 8, pp. 147–264. Kluwer Academic Publishers (2002)
Carmo, J., Jones, A.: Deontic logic and contrary-to-duties. In: Gabbay, D., Guenthner, F. (eds.) Handbook of Philosophical Logic, 2nd edn., vol. 8, pp. 265–343. Kluwer Academic Publishers (2002)
Forrester, J.W.: Gentle murder, or the adverbial samaritan. The Journal of Philosophy 81, 193–197 (1984)
Forrester, J.W.: Conflicts of obligation. American Philosophical Quarterly 32(1), 31–44 (1995)
Goble, L.: A logic of good, should, and would. Journal of Philosophical Logic (19), 169–199 (1990)
Hamblin, C.L.: Imperatives. Blackwell, Oxford (1987)
Hansen, J.: Imperatives and Deontic Logic. On the Semantic Foundations of Deontic Logic. Dissertation, University of Leipzig (2008)
Hansen, J., Pigozzi, G., van der Torre, L.: Ten philosophical problems in deontic logic. In: Boella, G., van der Torre, L., Verhagen, H. (eds.) Normative Multi-agent Systems, Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Dagstuhl, Germany, vol. 07122, Internationales Begegnungs- und Forschungszentrum für Informatik (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany (2007)
Hare, R.M.: Some alleged differences between imperatives and indicatives. Mind (76), 309–326 (1967)
Jones, A., Pörn, I.: Ideality, sub-ideality and deontic logic. Synthese 65, 275–290 (1985)
Kanger, S.: New foundations for ethical theory. In: Hilpinen, R. (ed.) Deontic Logic: Introductory and Systematic Readings, pp. 36–58. D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht (1971); First published as a privately distributed pamphlet (1957)
Mares, E.: Andersonian deontic logic. Theoria 58, 3–20 (1992)
McNamara, P.: Deontic logic. In: Zalta, E.N. (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2010)
Meyer, J.-J.: A simple solution to the “deepest” paradox in deontic logic. Logique & Analyse, 117–118, 81–90 (1987)
Meyer, J.-J.C., Wieringa, R.J., Dignum, F.P.M.: The role of deontic logic in the specification of information systems. In: Logics for Databases and Information Systems, pp. 71–115. Kluwer Academic, Boston (1998)
Prior, A.N.: Escapism: the logical basis of ethics. In: Melden, A.I. (ed.) Essays in Moral Philosophy, pp. 135–146. University of Washington Press, Seattle (1958)
von Wright, G.H.: Is there a logic of norms? Ratio Juris 4, 265–283 (1992)
Weinberger, O.: Der Begriff der Nicht-Erfüllung und die Normenlogik. Ratio 14, 15–32 (1972)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Straßer, C., Beirlaen, M. (2012). An Andersonian Deontic Logic with Contextualized Sanctions. In: Ågotnes, T., Broersen, J., Elgesem, D. (eds) Deontic Logic in Computer Science. DEON 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 7393. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31570-1_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31570-1_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-31569-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-31570-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)