Abstract
Input/output logics are abstract structures designed to represent conditional obligations and goals. In this paper we use them to study conditional permission. This perspective provides a clear separation of the familiar notion of negative permission from the more elusive one of positive permission. Moreover, it reveals that there are at least two kinds of positive permission. Although indistinguishable in the unconditional case, they are quite different in conditional contexts. One of them, which we call static positive permission, guides the citizen and law enforcement authorities in the assessment of specific actions under current norms, and it behaves like a weakened obligation. Another, which we call dynamic positive permission, guides the legislator. It describes the limits on the prohibitions that may be introduced into a code, and under suitable conditions behaves like a strengthened negative permission.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Alchourrón, C. E. (1993): Philosophical foundations of deontic logic and the logic of defeasible conditionals, in J. J. Meyer and R. J. Wieringa (eds), Deontic Logic in Computer Science: Normative System Specification, Wiley, New York.
Alchourrón, C. E. and Bulygin, E. (1984): Permission and permissive norms, in W. Krawietz et al. (eds), Theorie der Normen, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin.
Makinson, D. (1999): On a fundamental problem of deontic logic, in P. McNamara and H. Prakken (eds), Norms, Logics and Information Systems. New Studies in Deontic Logic and Computer Science, Frontiers Artif. Intell. Appl. 49, IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp. 29–53.
Makinson, D. and van der Torre, L. (2000): Input/output logics, J. Philos. Logic 29, 383–408.
Makinson, D. and van der Torre, L. (2001): Constraints for input/output logics, J. Philos. Logic 30, 155–185.
Makinson, D. and van der Torre, L. (2003): What is input/output logic?, in Foundations of the Formal Sciences II: Applications of Mathematical Logic in Philosophy and Linguistics, Trends in Logic Series 17, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 163–174.
Von Wright, G. (1959): On the logic of negation, Soc. Scient. Fennica Com. Physico-Math. XXII, 4.
Von Wright, G. (1963): Norm and Action, Routledge, London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Makinson, D., van der Torre, L. Permission from an Input/Output Perspective. Journal of Philosophical Logic 32, 391–416 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024806529939
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024806529939