The normative aspect of signalling and the distinction between performative and constative

Abstract

The paper outlines an approach to the formal representation of signalling conventions, emphasising the prominent role played therein by a particular type of normative modality. It is then argued that, in terms of inferencing related to this modality, a solution can be given to the task J.L. Austin set but failed to resolve: finding a criterion for distinguishing between what Austin called constatives and performatives. The remainder of the paper indicates the importance of the normative modality in understanding a closely related issue: reasoning about trust in communication scenarios; this, in turn, facilitates a clear formal articulation of the role of a Trusted Third Party in trade communication.

The open agent society: retrospective and prospective views

“…It was also the starting point for, inter alia, the development of a model of agent communication that overcame the limitations of the FIPA standard ACL 2 (Jones and Kimbrough 2008), a formal model of forgiveness (Vasalou et al 2008), and a methodology for the design of socio-technical systems (Jones et al 2013).…”