Journal Articles

That We Obey Rules Blindly Does Not Mean that We Are Blindly Subservient to Rules

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Wiigenstein's remarks on rule-following are rightly understood to be corrosive of the project iof cognitive science. They do not, however, therefore privilege sociology as a competitor discipline - despite the protestations of some sociologists. Rules are invoked as explanatory devices in social theory, and Wittgenstein is criticized for failing to offer a conception of rule-following amenable to such uses. This reveals a misconception of how rules work, and a misunderstanding of what Wittgenstein's philosophy was meant to achieve. Using Wittgenstein's own arguments about rule-following activities, in particular those concerning mathematics, we demonstrate that, first, rules do not indicate the existence of a realm independent of or superior to the mundane, everyday world, and so cannot be used to 'explain' activities with regard to such a realm. Wittgenstein's remark that rules are followed blindly therefore, cannot arbitrate between different social-theoretical understanding of what it means to follow a rule, but deals in very different debates in very different terms

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Series Title

Theory, Culture & Society

Call Number

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Publisher

California : Sage Publications., 2008

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0263-2764

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Edition

Vol. 25, No. 2, Page 33-50

Subject(s)

Rule

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