A Formal Characterisation of Hamblin's Action-State Semantics

Authors: Reed, Chris¹; Norman, Timothy²

Source: Journal of Philosophical Logic, Volume 36, Number 4, August 2007 , pp. 415-448(34)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

Hamblin's Action-State Semantics provides a sound philosophical foundation for understanding the character of the imperative. Taking this as our inspiration, in this paper we present a logic of action, which we call <Emphasis FontCategory="SansSerif">ST</Emphasis>, that captures the clear ontological distinction between being responsible for the achievement of a state of affairs and being responsible for the performance of an action. We argue that a relativised modal logic of type RT founded upon a ternary relation over possible worlds integrated with a basic tense logic captures intuitions of the Hamblinian model of imperatives. The logic implements a direct mapping of each of Hamblin's key concepts: strategies, partial strategies and wholehearted satisfaction.

Keywords: imperatives; action logics; delegation; Hamblin

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1007/s10992-006-9041-z

Affiliations: 1: Email: chris@computing.dundee.ac.uk 2: Email: tnorman@csd.abdn.ac.uk

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