The Logic of Commands

Originally published in 1966. Professor Rescher’s aim is to develop a logic of commands in exactly the same general way which standard logic has already developed a logic of truth-functional statement compounds or a logic of quantifiers . The object is to present a tolerably accurate and precise account of the logically relevant facets of a command, to study the nature of inference in reasonings involving commands, and above all to establish a viable concept of validity in command inference, so that the logical relationships among commands can be studied with something of the rigour to which one is accustomed in other branches of logic.