Normative Positions within Norm-Regulated Transition System Situations

In recent years, the study of norm-regulated multi-agent systems (MAS) has attracted a lot of attention. The Kanger-Lindahl theory of normative positions has great potential of serving as the logical foundation for normative systems for MAS, but its generality, which allows for great freedom when interpreting the theory, may also become a challenge for practical applications. As an important step towards a typology of interpretations of the theory, we study the application of normative positions in the context of a basic class of transition systems in which transitions are deterministic and associated with a single agent performing an act. By an interpretation of the types of normative positions in terms of permitting or prohibiting different types (with respect to some condition on a number of agents) of state transitions in this context, lexicons for two different systems of types of normative positions are suggested and discussed. It is demonstrated that both interpretations are natural and useful, depending on how the notion of agency is understood and whether a ´system norms´ or an ´agent-specific norms´ perspective is taken.