Applications of deontic logic in computer science: a concise overview

Abstract

Deontic logic is the logic that deals with actual as well as ideal behavior of systems. In this paper, we survey a number of applications of deontic logic in computer science that have arisen in the eighties, and give a systematic framework in which these applications can be classified. Many applications move in the direction of programming a computer in deontic logic to make the computer prohibit, permit or obligate people to do something. We discuss conditions under which this possibility is realistic and conditions under which it would be admissible to do so.