Abstract

. In this paper we discuss the role of context and independence in normative reasoning. First, deontic operators -- obligations, prohibitions, permissions -- referring to the ideal context may conflict with operators referring to a violation (or contrary-to-duty) context. Second, deontic independence is a powerful concept to derive deontic operators from such operators of other violation contexts. These two concepts are used to determine how to proceed once a norm has been violated, a key issue of deontic logic applications in computer science. We also show how violation contexts and deontic independence can be used to give a new analysis of several notorious paradoxes of deontic logic. 1 Introduction Deontic logic is a modal logic in which flp is read as `p ought to be (done),' Fp as `p is forbidden to be (done)' and Pp as `p is permitted to be (done).' Deontic logic has traditionally been used by philosophers to analyze the structure of the normative use of language. In the eightie...