On Evaluating Deontic Logics

Abstract

Professor van Fraassen, in his paper ‘The Logic of Conditional Obligation’, argues that certain problems, raised for the minimal deontic logic D by contrary-to-duty imperatives, by the Good Samaritan paradox, and by Powers’ John and Suzy paradox, can be handled by his conditional logic of obligation CD. In my comments I shall for the most part neither attack nor support this claim: rather, I shall point out some reasons why I find it difficult to evaluate.