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MSc in Logic - Project January 2010

Formal and game-theoretic aspects of norms.

Norms or conventions generally guide the choice of behaviors in human societies. Conformity to norms reduces social frictions, relieves cognitive load on humans, and facilitates coordination. ''Everyone conforms, everyone expects others to conform, and everyone has good reason to conform because conforming is in each person's best interest when everyone else plans to conform'' (D. Lewis, 1969). This topic is the concern of various disciplines including social sciences (using game theoretic models), logics, and multiagent systems. The goal of the project is to get acquainted with the issue of norms in these different fields.

Stéphane Airiau
Davide Grossi

The project will focus on two main topics within the theory of norms:

• what is the logic of norms?
• how does norm "emerge" within a given society?

These topics will be addressed from an interdisciplinary point of view, by reviewing a selection of papers from different research fields: philosophy, logic, game theory, computer science. The project will be structured in the form of a seminar, so it will take place only conditionally to a sufficient number of students (at least 3).

The participants will also be encouraged to attend the workshop Formal Models of Norm Change 2 that will be held on January 18-19th at the illc.

The course presupposes some basic knowledge of modal logic and game theory.

Students will present two articles among the ones selected and write a short essay at the end of the seminar. The participation in the discussion at the end of each session will also contribute to the final assessment.

We will select the papers to read from the following list:

• Deontic logic / Philosophy
  • Henry Prakken and Marek Sergot. Contrary-to-duty obligations. Stud Logica , 1996.
  • G.H. von Wright, Deontic logic, Mind, 1951.
  • E Pacuit, R Parikh, and E Cogan. The logic of knowledge based obligation. Synthese , 2006.
• Computer Science/AI
  • Y Shoham and M Tennenholtz. On social laws for artificial agent societies: Off-line design. Artificial Intelligence, 1995.
  • Y Shoham and M Tennenholtz. On the emergence of social conventions: modeling, analysis, and simulations. Artificial Intelligence , Jan 1997.
  • Michael Wooldridge, and Wiebe van der Hoek On obligations and normative ability: Towards a logical analysis of the social contract, Journal of Applied Logic, 2005.
• Economics
  • R Axelrod. An evolutionary approach to norms. The American Political Science Review , 1986.
  • H Young. The evolution of conventions. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society , 1993.
  • H Young. The economics of convention. The Journal of Economic Perspectives , 1996.

Friday: 8th	Kian on Deontic Logic. (slides) Additional reading: J.-J. Ch. Meyer and R.J. Wieringa. "Deontic Logic: A Concise Overview", chapter I in Deontic Logic in Computer Science - Normative System Specification, edited by J.-J. Ch. Meyer and R.J. Wieringa, Wiley, 1993. G. Boella, L. van der Torre and H. Verhagen. "Introduction to normative multiagent systems", Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory, 2006
Friday 15th	Michael on Contrary-to-duty obligations. (slides) Helen on The logic of knowledge based obligation. (slides)
Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th	Formal Models of Norm Change 2
Wednesday 20th	Navid on The evolution of conventions. (slides)
Friday 22nd	Kian on An evolutionary approach to norms. (slides) Helen on Economics of Convention (slides)
Monday 25th	Navid on On obligations and normative ability: Towards a logical analysis of the social contract. (slides) Michael on On the emergence of social conventions: modeling, analysis, and simulations. (slides)