Permission from an input/output perspective (Q1402584)

This paper is the third in a series by the authors (cf. Zbl 0964.03002, Zbl 0993.03039) on input/output logics based on inference-like operations in which inputs need not be outputs and outputs need not be recyclable as inputs. These have particular application in deontic logic, where the input/output operations may represent a system of norms. The previous papers investigated conditional obligation within this framework; the present paper takes up (conditional) permission. This notion is more complex than usually considered in deontic logic. The authors distinguish three sorts of conditional permission, negative permission and two sorts of positive permission. Negative permission is the absence of prohibition; this is what is usually presented in deontic logic. Static positive permission is, roughly, what follows from something a normative code explicitly permits and what it requires. This is rather like a weak obligation; it guides a person's action. Dynamic positive permission is, roughly, what cannot be contravened in a normative code without incoherence; this guides codemakers considering changing the body of norms. All three concepts are defined precisely with respect to the input/output structures, and their formal properties investigated, especially the rules of inference they satisfy and the way they can be axiomatized out of the rules of conditional obligation. It is noteworthy that the distinctions between the two sorts of positive permission require the sophistication of the input/output logics. An appendix summarizes the basic concepts of that framework.