Sanction Semantics and Contrary-to-Duty Obligations

摘要

In this paper I show that one cannot faithfully represent contrary-to-duty obligations in logics with sanction semantics. In order to do so I first provide a number of desiderata that a logic should satisfy in order to represent contrary-to-duty obligations using sanction semantics. I then show that no logic satisfying all desiderata can faithfully represent contrary-to-duty obligations. Finally I show that when dropping any one of the desiderata there is a logic that satisfies all others and can represent some contrary-to-duty obligations faithfully.