ABSTRACT

A conditional command whose execution precondition never arises will be regarded as automatically terminated. Also, one shall say that ‘a person terminates a command’ when his behaviour is such as to render the appropriate termination statement true. (a standing order only becomes terminated posthumously.) While commands themselves are prospective and ante eventum, their termination statements are always retrospective and post eventum. The perspective of command termination is a good one from which to take a retrospective glance at the matter of rational control over commanded actions. The logical theory of commands will rest primarily on the concept of command-termination rather than on that of obedience. The reason for this is that the notion of ‘obedience’ is so intricate, intentional, and conceptually untractable that it is prudent and advantageous to press the analysis as far as possible without resort to it.