Deontology of compound actions (Q2304622)

This paper is a companion to the book [\textit{J. Czelakowski}, Freedom and enforcement in action. A study in formal action theory. Dordrecht: Springer (2015; Zbl 1401.68007)]. The current paper elaborates the deontology of sequential and compound actions based on relational models and formal constructs borrowed from formal linguistics. Compound actions are defined as sets \(A\) of finite sequences \(x\) of atomic actions \(a\in \Sigma\). The deontic operators \(P, F, O\) introduced in [loc. cit.] respectively as \textit{permitted, forbidden, or obligatory} on atomic actions, are defined for compound actions. Atomic formulas of the language of action deontology are expressions of the form \(O(x),P(x),F(x)\) with \(x \in \Sigma^*\) and \(O(A),P(A),F(A)\) with \(A\) any set \(A \subseteq \Sigma^*\). Compound formulas are built from the above atomic formulas by means of applying the Boolean connectives \( \rightarrow\) and \( \neg\). It is noted that, e.g., \(P(x.a)\) cannot been expressed in terms of \(P(x)\) and \(P(a)\). A coherent and strict logical system \(\models\) is presented. This system is semantically defined by providing its intended models in which the role of actions of various types (atomic, sequential, and compound ones) is accentuated. Since the consequence relation \(\models\) is not finitary, other semantically defined variants of \(\models\) are defined. The focus is on a finitary system \(\models_f \) in which only finite compound actions are admissible. An adequate axiom system for \(\models_f \) is defined. The strong completeness theorem is the central result. The role of the canonical model is emphasized.