What is a normative goal? Towards goal-based normative agent architectures

In this paper we are interested in developing goal-based normative agent architectures. We ask ourselves the question what a normative goal is. To answer this question we introduce a qualitative normative decision theory based on belief (B) and obligation (O) rules. We show that every agent which makes optimal decisions - which we call a BO rational agent - acts as if it is maximizing the set of normative goals that will be achieved. This is the basis of our design of goal-based normative agents.