Facing the future : agents and choices in our indeterminist world / Nuel Belnap, Michael Perloff, Ming Xu ; with contributions by Paul Bartha, Mitchell Green, John Horty.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 475-482) and index.

Print version record.

In this elucidating work, the authors attempt to construct a logical analysis of human actions, focusing on those actions based on choice. Using their examination of "seeing to it that," they investigate a large number of topics, including imperatives, deontic logic, strategies, determinism, and promising assertion. One of the work's provocative conclusions is that one, actual future does not exist; instead, all possible futures are on par with one another.

I: Introduction to stit -- 1 Stit: A canonical form for agentives -- 1A Agentives -- 1B Stit: Simple cases -- 1C Grammar of the modal logic of agency -- 1D Mini-history of the modal logic of agency -- 1E Conclusion and summary -- 2 Stit: Introductory theory, semantics, and applications -- 2A Theory and semantics: The two stits -- 2B Applications of stit, with many pictures -- 3 Small yet important differences from earlier proposals -- 3A Von Wright -- 3B Chisholm -- 3C Kenny -- 3D Castañeda -- 3E Davidson -- 3F Conclusion -- 4 Stit and the imperative -- 4A The theory of fiats.

4B Ross's paradox and stit -- 4C Chellas's theory -- 4D Agentive constructions -- 4E Negations of imperatives -- 4F The many varieties of imperatives -- 4G Embedding imperatives -- 4H Conclusion -- 5 Promising: Stits, claims, and strategies -- 5A From stit to promising -- 5B From RR to promising -- 5C Strategic content of promises and word-givings -- II: Foundations of indeterminism -- 6 Indeterminism and the Thin Red Line -- 6A Preliminary considerations -- 6B Parameters of truth -- 6C The assertion problem -- 6D The Thin Red Line -- 6E Time's wingèd chariot hurries near.

7 Agents and choices in branching time with instants -- 7A Theory of branching time -- 7B Theoretical reflections on indeterminism -- 7C Theory of agents and choices -- 7D Domain -- 8 Indexical semantics under indeterminism -- 8A Sources -- 8B Structure parameters: The ""world"" of the speakers -- 8C Interpretation and model: The ""language"" of the speakers -- 8D Points of evaluation, and policies -- 8E Generic semantic ideas -- 8F Semantics for stit-free locutions -- 8G Clauses for stit functors -- III: Applications of the achievement stit -- 9 Could have done otherwise.

9A Could have been and might have been -- 9B Could have done and might have done -- 9C Might have been otherwise -- 9D Might not have done it -- 9E Could not have avoided doing -- 9F Could have prevented -- 9G Could have refrained -- 9H Might have refrained -- 9I Had available a strategy for not doing -- 9J Summary -- 10 Multiple and joint agency -- 10A Preliminary facts -- 10B Other-agent nested stits -- 10C Joint agency: Plain and strict -- 10D Other-agent nested joint stits -- IV: Applications of the deliberative stit -- 11 Conditional obligation, deontic paradoxes, and stit.

11A Technical preliminaries -- 11B Semantics of obligation -- 11C Completeness -- 11D Conditional obligation -- 11E O -statements versus O-statements -- 11F The Good Samaritan -- 11G Contrary-to-duty obligations -- 11H Problems with the proposed semantics of obligation -- 12 Marcus and the problem of nested deontic modalities -- 12A The parking problem -- 12B The form of obligations -- 12C The Anderson/dstit simplification -- 12D The form of prohibitions -- 12E Generalized prohibitions -- 12F Generalization on agents -- 12G Temporal generalization -- 12H The outer ought -- V: Strategies.

English.

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide