Doing and refraining from refraining (Q1337507)

From MaRDI portal
scientific article
Language Label Description Also known as
English
Doing and refraining from refraining
scientific article

    Statements

    Doing and refraining from refraining (English)
    0 references
    0 references
    9 November 1994
    0 references
    In N. Belnap and M. Perloff's local logic of agency, the stit (``see to it that'') theory, an important problem is the refraining/refraining conjecture: that doing is equivalent to refraining from refraining from doing. This conjecture holds in a semantic structure if the structure contains no ``busy choice sequence'' (a sequence of infinitely many choices for an agent in a finite time); see \textit{N. Belnap}: ``Backwards and forwards in the modal logic of agency'' [Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 51, 777-807 (1991)]. It is known that the conjecture fails in some structures which have busy choice sequences. In this paper, the author shows that in every structure containing a busy choice sequence, refraining from refraining from doing neither implies, nor is implied by, doing.
    0 references
    stit theory
    0 references
    local logic of agency
    0 references
    doing
    0 references
    refraining
    0 references
    busy choice sequence
    0 references

    Identifiers