Create to rule. Essays on constitutive rules

Wojciech Zełaniec – Uniwersytet Gdański

Create to Rule
Essays on Constitutive Rules

Collana: «Nomologica» 3
16 x 23,5 cm – pp. 178 – 2013 – € 30,00
ISBN 978-88-7916-625-6

CONTENTS: Preface — 1. A short introduction: 1.1. The work – 1.2. The fun — 2. On the threefold import of constitutive rules: 2.1. A quick and dirty introduction – 2.2. What are CRs, really? – 2.3. So, what use are CRs? — 3. A long introduction: 3.1. A simple example: children’s game, raising a flag as a greeting – 3.2. Some general properties of CRs – 3.3. Classifications of CRs – 3.4. The importance of CRs – 3.5. Finally: but are there any CRs at all? — 4. A classification of CRs — 5. On the very idea of a CR. Sceptical considerations: 5.1. Introduction – 5.2. CRs vs. regulative rules: is this not a spurious opposition? – 5.3. An instructive example: the rules of chess – 5.4. In what sense are rules of chess constitutive and not regulative? – 5.5. Regulative vs. constitutive: a distinction regained – 5.6. Why should there be CRs at all? – 5.7. The relevance of understanding the «count(s) as» pseudo-copula correctly for proper delimitation of CRs – 5.8. A reply to Professor Ottonelli — 6. On the constitutive force of regulative rules — 7. On the ontology and the normative aspect of CRs: 7.1. Introduction – 7.2. Some examples – 7.3. Morals from the examples: delimitation of the constitutive, its relation to the regulative — 8. CRs as variable expressions of human nature — References — Index.

This book is a monograph on constitutive rules. Its eight chapters embody studies on the topic written by the author over the last ten years. The «essence» of constitutive rules, their demarcation from other kinds of rules, their structure, function and «point» are the guiding topics, as is the internal diversification and classification within the class of constitutive rules, assumed to form a well-delimited class. Searle’s work is frequently made reference to, but no less that of a few lesser-known Italian and other non-Anglophone students of constitutive rules – some of whom were more attentive to detail than Searle. Searle’s pseudo-copula «counts as» is given special attention. The studies in this book go, too, into substantial issues of the ontology and epistemology of constitutive rules, their pragmatics and their utility. The main idea, which emerges in various configurations in these studies, is that constitutive rules are useful in that they enable us to reach some of our (generically) preexisting ends, defined by nature or history, in a variety of substantially novel ways, which make these ends (specifically) novel, too. Activities created and ruled by constitutive rules are not autotelic (as it may sometimes seem), it is argued, because they are indulged in for the sake of a goal not exhaustively defined by the rules themselves, yet this goal must be reached in this rule-defined particular way – this is the main «charm» of such activities (a person who has the desire to win in chess will, typically, not be just as happy if he wins in golf or elephant polo). Also, the rôle of constitutive rules in social reality, all culture and civilisation, is brought to the fore. The book employs many examples (from law, games, religion, poetry and others) meant to make, as the author hopes, abstract strands of thought easier to follow.

Wojciech Żełaniec (born 1959) is a philosopher with a background in mathematics and linguistics. He is currently Director of the Chair of Ethics and Social Philosophy at the University of Gdańsk (Poland). In the past, he did research at the International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein, SUNY at Buffalo and the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Germany. He taught at Częstochowa (Poland), Würzburg, Zielona Góra (Poland), Istanbul, Santiago de Chile, and since 2006 he has taught Social Philosophy in Gdańsk. For more details and publications see www.wnswz.strony.ug.edu.pl.

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