Ten Problems of Deontic Logic and Normative Reasoning in Computer Science

The ESSLLI course presents and discusses ten problems of deontic logic and normative reasoning in computer science. Five of these problems have been taken from a list of ten philosophical problems in deontic logic discussed by Hansen, Pigozzi & van der Torre [39]: how to formally represent norms, how sets of norms may be revised and merged, how contrary-to-duty obligations can be appropriately modeled, how various concepts of permission can be accommodated, and how meaning postulates and counts-as conditionals can be taken into account. The five new problems of deontic logic especially relevant for computer science discussed in this course are: What is the role of time in deontic reasoning? What is the role of action in deontic reasoning? How can we use norms to influence, solve, or control games? How do norms interact with informational modalities (beliefs, knowledge) and motivational modalities (intentions, desires, etc)? How do we resolve the general problem of norm compliance? Hansen et al. discuss their ten philosophical problems from the viewpoint of input/output logic as developed by Makinson & van der Torre, and they argue that norms, not ideality, should take the central position in deontic semantics, and that a semantics that represents norms, as input/output logic does, provides helpful tools for analyzing, clarifying and solving the problems of deontic logic. We emphasize the need to extend this framework with agents, other modalities, time, actions and game-theoretic concepts.