The present volume is a product of an international research program 'Foundations of Science and Ethics', launched in 1976 by the Inter- University Centre of Post-Graduate Studies, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, with the financial support of the V olkswagen Foundation. According to the outline ofthe program, formulated in 1976 by a committee consisting of Professors Dagfinn F llesdal, Rudolf Haller (coordinator), Lorenz Kruger, Karel Lambert, Keith Lehrer, Kuno Lorenz, Gunther Patzig, Ivan Supek and Paul Weingartner, its general purpose was to investigate the interplay of various internal and...

The present volume is a sequel to Deontic Logic: Introductory and Systematic Readings (D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht 1971): its purpose is to offer a view of some of the main directions of research in contemporary deontic logic. Most of the articles included in Introductory and Systematic Readings represent what may be called the standard modal approach to deontic logic, in which de on tic logic is treated as a branch of modal logic, and the normative concepts of obligation, permission and prohibition are regarded as analogous to the "alethic" modalities necessity, possibility and...

x I wish to express my thanks to all contributors to this volume for their collaboration, and especially to Professor laakko Hintikka, Editor of Synthese Library, for his help in editing this book. THE EDITOR INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND IMPRESSION The articles included in this collection represent what may be called the standard modal approach to deontic logic (the logic of normative concepts), in which deontic logic is treated as a branch of modal logic, and the normative concepts of obligation, permission (permissibility) and prohibi- tion are regarded as analogous to the 'alethic'...