Free choice permission is strong permission

Nicholas Asher

Daniel Bonevac

pp. 303-323

in: Synthese 145 (3), 2005.

Abstract

Free choice permission, a crucial test case concerning the semantics/ pragmatics boundary, usually receives a pragmatic treatment. But its pragmatic features follow from its semantics. We observe that free choice inferences are defeasible, and defend a semantics of free choice permission as strong permission expressed in terms of a modal conditional in a nonmonotonic logic.