A Decidable Multi-agent Logic for Reasoning About Actions, Instruments, and Norms

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A Decidable Multi-agent Logic for Reasoning About Actions, Instruments, and Norms

Kees van BerkelKees van Berkel,  Tim LyonTim Lyon,  Francesco OlivieriFrancesco Olivieri
A Decidable Multi-agent Logic for Reasoning About Actions, Instruments, and Norms


Kees van Berkel, Tim Lyon, Francesco Olivieri
A Decidable Multi-agent Logic for Reasoning About Actions, Instruments, and Norms
Logic and Argumentation, volume 12061, 219-241, 2020. Springer
  • KurzfassungAbstract
    We formally introduce a novel, yet ubiquitous, category of norms: norms of instrumentality. Norms of this category describe which actions are obligatory, or prohibited, as instruments for certain results. We propose the Logic of Agency and Norms (LAN) that enables reasoning about actions, instrumentality, and normative principles in a multi-agent setting. Leveraging LAN, we formalize norms of instrumentality and compare them to two prevalent norm categories: norms to be and norms to do. Last, we pose principles describing relations between the three categories and evaluate their validity vis-a-vis notions of deliberative acting. On a technical note, the logic will be shown decidable via the finite model property.
  • Weitere Informationen unter:Further Information: Link
  • Forschungsgruppe:Research Group: Computational LogicComputational Logic
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44638-3_14.
@InProceedings{10.1007/978-3-030-44638-3_14,
author="van Berkel, Kees
and Lyon, Tim
and Olivieri, Francesco",
editor="Dastani, Mehdi
and Dong, Huimin
and van der Torre, Leon",
title="A Decidable Multi-agent Logic for Reasoning About Actions, Instruments, and Norms",
booktitle="Logic and Argumentation",
year="2020",
publisher="Springer International Publishing",
address="Cham",
pages="219--241",
abstract="We formally introduce a novel, yet ubiquitous, category of norms: norms of instrumentality. Norms of this category describe which actions are obligatory, or prohibited, as instruments for certain results. We propose the Logic of Agency and Norms (LAN) that enables reasoning about actions, instrumentality, and normative principles in a multi-agent setting. Leveraging LAN, we formalize norms of instrumentality and compare them to two prevalent norm categories: norms to be and norms to do. Last, we pose principles describing relations between the three categories and evaluate their validity vis-a-vis notions of deliberative acting. On a technical note, the logic will be shown decidable via the finite model property.",
isbn="978-3-030-44638-3"
}