An essay in deontic logic and the general theory of action: With a bibliography of deontic and imperative logic (Acta philosophica Fennica, Fasc. XXI)

Wright, Georg Henrik Von

ISBN 10: 0720424011 / ISBN 13: 9780720424010

Published by North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972

8vo (24 cm), 110 pp. Printed wrappers (ex-library copy with usual stamps and mark, but clean and firm). An Essay in Deontic Logic and the General Theory of Action, published as Fascicle XXI of Acta Philosophica Fennica by North-Holland Publishing Company in Amsterdam in 1972, is von Wright's most systematic treatment of deontic logic, growing out of continued work since his founding 1951 Mind paper "Deontic Logic" and his 1963 book Norm and Action, and occasioned by an invitation to a colloquium on the logic of norms at Cracow in February 1967, signed Helsinki, May 1968. The essay is organized in four chapters: Chapter I develops the formal systems of deontic logic, beginning from the analogy between modal concepts and normative concepts of permission, obligation, and prohibition, then constructing monadic and dyadic deontic calculi, analyzing conditional permission as a relation of alternativeness between possible worlds, diagnosing the paradoxes of deontic logic as confusions between different permission and obligation concepts, and sketching a privileged combined system. Chapter II develops the elements of a logic of action, defining action as the bringing about or preventing of changes in the world, building the T-calculus, TI-calculus, and TIM-calculus, introducing the life-tree, degrees of freedom, and the distinction between ontic and epistemic determinism. Chapter III combines the two---developing the deontic logic of action, treating contrary-to-duty imperatives, predicament and internal conflict of obligation (illustrated by the story of Jephthah in the Book of Judges), and the paradoxes of derived obligation. Chapter IV addresses meta-juristic questions: normative systems, deontic determinacy, open and closed systems of norms, the principle nullum crimen sine lege, norms of higher order, and the notions of competence and validity. The volume concludes with an extensive bibliography of deontic and imperative logic. Seller Inventory # 009618

Bibliographic Details

Title: An essay in deontic logic and the general ...
Publisher: North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam
Publication Date: 1972
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Good