Foundations of the Formal Sciences II: Applications of Mathematical Logic in Philosophy and Linguistics, pp163-174. Trends in Logic Series, vol 17, 2003

Abstract

We explain the raison d’être and basic ideas of input/output logic, with pointers to other publications for detailed developments. The motivation comes from the logic of conditional norms, where we need an approach that does not presume that directives carry truth-values. To deal with the subtleties of contrary-to-duty situations, input/output operations may be subjected to consistency constraints, expressed via the notion of an outfamily. They also provide a convenient platform for distinguishing and analysing several different kinds of permission. 1