On Automating the Doctrine of Double Effect

Understand

The doctrine of double effect ($\mathcal{DDE}$) is a long-studied ethical principle that governs when actions that have both positive and negative effects are to be allowed.

• The goal in this paper is to automate $\mathcal{DDE}$.
• We briefly present $\mathcal{DDE}$, and use a first-order modal logic, the deontic cognitive event calculus, as our framework to formalize the doctrine.
• We present formalizations of increasingly stronger versions of the principle, including what is known as the doctrine of triple effect.