Deontic logic in a reason-based semantics

Vita Saitta (Università Cattolica di Milano)

In the last two decades, the development of truthmaker semantics for systems of deontic logic has attracted the attention of various scholars. Independently, the idea that reasons are the basic elements grounding obligations, and deontic notions in general, has led to the introduction of several reason-based deontic systems. This paper introduces a novel framework that bridges these two traditions by combining deontic logic with a truthmaker-based approach to reasons. The logic we propose is designed to capture how reasons interact to support actions, offering a refined account of obligation and a more fine-grained and intuitive interpretation of normative conflicts. Specifically, we assume that the reasons for performing an action are facts, and we systematically study how these facts combine to determine deontic states.   As a result, we obtain a sound and complete hyperintensional system of logic that solves in one stroke some of the most pressing problems in deontic logic. This is a joint work with Alessandro Giordani.