ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the logical characteristics of certain special kinds of complex commands: the command analogues to propositions compounded by propositional connectives as negation, conjunction, and disjunction. In this way one shall be able to apply (rather than to extend) the conception of validity in command inference. With commands there is not — as there is with assertoric propositions — a simple and straightforward notion of negation (contradictory-formation). Several quite distinct modes of ‘negation’ must be considered. It is important to distinguish between the countermand (negation) of a command and its withdrawal or voiding. In a sense, an alternative-indicating command is not actually complete, since it requires some extrinsic, supplementary information to rule out the ‘extraneous’ alternatives. It would seem plausible to take the alternative-indicating type of command as basic, introducing the choice-presenting type by its means. A choice-presenting command could be construed as a complex consisting of an alternative-indicating command together with certain authorizations.
