Talking about actions (Q1115852)

This is a brief sketch of the author's recent studies in deontic logic. The universe is considered as a kind of an automaton with different ``total states''. A calculation of a program is a path in the set of all states, and there is ``nature's choice function'' whose value c(\(\alpha\),p) is the continuation of the path p according to the program \(\alpha\). Agents in the world have their own wills; a formal analogue of a will is a ``routine''. There is also the ``nature's aggregation function'' C such that \(C(r_ 1,...,r_ n)\) is the program resulting from routines \(r_ 1,...,r_ n\). There are three kinds of facts about the world: a ``state-of-affairs'' is a set of states, an ``event'' is a set of paths, a ``process'' is a special set of events. In this context some tense operators are introduced (e.g., ``the event E is occurring''). Some non-formal discussions concerning deliberate actions, intentional actions, and causality are given.