Moral conflicts between groups of agents (Q2481240)

Deontic conflicts are usually studied from the standpoint of a single agent, with respect to one or more moral codes. In this paper, the authors consider the question from a multi-agent perspective, with groups of agents as second-level bearers of obligations. More specifically, they study the logical conditions for conflict between \(n = 1,2\) groups of agents with respect to \(m = 1,2\) codes. Their formal framework for agency/action is based ultimately on Belnap's well-known ``stit'' logic, with a multi-agent deontic/modal superstructure along lines, developed by Horty. The logic is constructed in such a way as to rule out the possibility of conflict when \(n = m = 1\), essentially because that in that case it validates the principles of distribution of obligation over conjunction and ``ought implies can'', familiar from ``standard'' single-agent single-code deontic logic. The authors establish a necessary and sufficient condition for conflict to be possible under their constructions when at least one of \(n,m = 2\). They also illustrate the apparatus by the well-known prisoner's dilemma, seen as a case of two agents with both singleton and pair groups and codes reflecting the interests of the same.