The constitutive nature of rules

Patricia Werhane

pp. 5-19

in: David Bevan, Regina W. Wolfe (eds), Systems thinking and moral imagination, Berlin, Springer, 2019

Abstract

Following the later writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, in this article Werhane argues that language is inexorably rule-governed. Indeed, it could not be otherwise if it is a form of communication through which we are intended to understand each other. This is not to conclude or interpret that such rules are a strict set of rules that we must follow; rather that the rules themselves are dynamic. These rules, like grammar, may even be abandoned. But the routine communicability of a shared language depends on a level of consistency in its use and a reliance on a mutual understanding of the rules of grammar or the values of any changes in that grammar.Original publication: Werhane, Patricia H. "The Constitutive Nature of Rules." Southern Journal of Philosophy (1987) XXV: 239–254. ©1987 Reprinted with permission.

Cited authors

Wittgenstein Ludwig