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Free Choice in Modal Inquisitive Logic

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  • Published: 24 August 2022
  • volume 52, pages 347–391 (2023)
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Free Choice in Modal Inquisitive Logic
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  • Karl Nygren  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7435-35921 
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Abstract

This paper investigates inquisitive extensions of normal modal logic with an existential modal operator taken as primitive. The semantics of the existential modality is generalized to apply to questions, as well as statements. When the generalized existential modality is applied to a question, the result is a statement that roughly expresses that each way of resolving the question is consistent with the available information. I study the resulting logic both from a semantic and from a proof-theoretic point of view. I argue that it can be used for reasoning about a general notion of ignorance, and for reasoning about choice-offering permissions and obligations. The main technical results are sound and complete axiomatizations, both for the class of all Kripke frames, and for any class of frames corresponding to a canonical normal modal logic.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Valentin Goranko, Ivano Ciardelli, Gianluca Grilletti, Adrian Ommundsen, Ali Nosherwan Hamed, and the anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions.

Funding

Open access funding provided by Stockholm University.

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  1. Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Karl Nygren

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  1. Karl Nygren
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Correspondence to Karl Nygren.

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Nygren, K. Free Choice in Modal Inquisitive Logic. J Philos Logic 52, 347–391 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-022-09674-4

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  • Received: 04 November 2021

  • Accepted: 01 July 2022

  • Published: 24 August 2022

  • Issue Date: April 2023

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-022-09674-4

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Keywords

  • Inquisitive logic
  • Completeness
  • Free choice
  • Deontic logic
  • Ignorance

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