Moral Particularism and Deontic Logic

The aim of this paper is to strengthen the point made by Horty about the relationship between reason holism and moral particularism. In the literature prima facie obligations have been considered as the only source of reason holism. I strengthen Horty’s point in two ways. First, I show that contrary-to-duties provide another independent support for reason holism. Next I outline a formal theory that is able to capture these two sources of holism. While in simple settings the proposed account coincides with Horty’s one, this is not true in more complicated or “realistic” settings in which more than two norms collide. My chosen formalism is so-called input/output logic.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: DEON
• Authors: Xavier Parent
• Keywords: Automated Reasoning, DEON 2010, Horty’s Point, Prima Facie Obligations, Reason Holism