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Inheritance: Professor Procrastinate and the logic of obligation 1
Author(s) -
Blumberg Kyle,
Hawthorne John
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
philosophy and phenomenological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1933-1592
pISSN - 0031-8205
DOI - 10.1111/phpr.12846
Subject(s) - deontic logic , inheritance (genetic algorithm) , epistemology , logical consequence , resolution (logic) , philosophy , computer science , cognitive science , psychology , artificial intelligence , chemistry , biochemistry , gene
Inheritance is the principle that deontic ‘ought’ is closed under entailment. This paper is about a tension that arises in connection with Inheritance. More specifically, it is about two observations that pull in opposite directions. One of them raises questions about the validity of Inheritance, while the other appears to provide strong support for it. We argue that existing approaches to deontic modals fail to provide us with an adequate resolution of this tension. In response, we develop a positive analysis, and show that this proposal provides a satisfying account of our intuitions.