Handbook of Deontic Logic and Normative Systems

Book excerpt: The Handbook of Deontic Logic and Normative Systems presents a detailed overview of the main lines of research on contemporary deontic logic and related topics. Although building on decades of previous work in the field, it is the first collection to take into account the significant changes in the landscape of deontic logic that have occurred in the past twenty years. These changes have resulted largely, though not entirely, from the interaction of deontic logic with a variety of other fields, including computer science, legal theory, organizational theory, economics, and linguistics. This first volume of the Handbook is divided into three parts, containing nine chapters in all, each written by leading experts in the field. The first part concentrates on historical foundations. The second examines topics of central interest in contemporary deontic logic. The third presents some new logical frameworks that have now become part of the mainstream literature. A second volume of the Handbook is currently in preparation, and there may be a third after that.