Joint work with David Makinson, King's College London.

Input-output logic (IOL) is a theory of input/output operations resembling inference, but where input propositions are not in general included among outputs, and the operation is not in any way reversible. Examples arise in contexts of conditional obligations, goals, ideals, preferences, actions, and beliefs. Four are singled out: simple-minded, basic (making intelligent use of disjunctive inputs), simple-minded reusable (in which outputs may be recycled as inputs), and basic reusable. They are defined semantically and characterised by derivation rules, as well as in terms of relabeling procedures and modal operators. Their behaviour is studied on both semantic and syntactic levels.

I this talk I intend to:

briefly give a general background of my research on deontic logic, qualitative decision theory, input/output logics, and agent theory (to put the work in context)

motivate IOL by discussing conditionals in modal logic

explain the basic theory

briefly mention extensions with constraints and permissions

briefly mention applications to cognitive agent architectures

Background material:

D. Makinson and L. van der Torre, Input-output logics. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 29: 383-408, 2000.

D. Makinson and L. van der Torre, Constraints for input-output logics. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 30(2):155-185, 2001.

D. Makinson and L. van der Torre, Permissions from an input/output perspective. Journal of Philosophical Logic, to appear.

D. Makinson and L. van der Torre, What is Input/Output Logic? Foundations of the Formal Sciences II: Applications of Mathematical Logic in Philosophy and Linguistics. Trends in Logic, Kluwer, 2003.

D. Makinson and L. van der Torre, Input-output logics. Course material for 10 hour course presented at ESSLLI01.