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For a Dynamic Semantics of Necessity Deontic Modals

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Deontic Logic and Normative Systems (DEON 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 8554))

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Abstract

Traditional approaches in deontic logic have focused on the so-called reportative reading of obligation sentences, by providing truth-functional semantics based on a primitive ideality order between possible worlds. Those approaches, however, do not take into account that, in natural language, obligation sentences primarily carry a prescriptive effect. The paper focuses precisely on that prescriptive character, and shows that the reportative reading can be derived from the prescriptive one. A dynamic, non truth-functional semantics for necessity deontic modals is developed, in which the ideality relations among possible worlds can be updated. Finally, it is proven that the semantics solves several of the classic deontic paradoxes.

I would like to thank Reinhard Muskens, Alan Thomas, Dominik Klein and the anonymous referees of DEON 2014 for their suggestions and comments on the issues discussed in this paper.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tilburg Center for Logic, General Ethics and Philosophy of Science, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Alessandra Marra

Authors
  1. Alessandra Marra
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Northwestern University, Campus Drive, 1880, 60208, Evanston, IL, USA

    Fabrizio Cariani

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Ashton Building, Ashton Street, L69 3BX, Liverpool, UK

    Davide Grossi

  3. Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Universiteit Gent, Blandijnberg 2, 9000, Gent, Belgium

    Joke Meheus

  4. University of Luxembourg,  6, rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, 1359, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

    Xavier Parent

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Marra, A. (2014). For a Dynamic Semantics of Necessity Deontic Modals. In: Cariani, F., Grossi, D., Meheus, J., Parent, X. (eds) Deontic Logic and Normative Systems. DEON 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8554. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08615-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08615-6_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08614-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08615-6

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