Rules
a short history of what we live by
- ISBN: 9780691254081
- Editorial: Princeton University Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2024
- Lugar de la edición: Princeton (NJ). Estados Unidos de Norteamérica
- Encuadernación: Cartoné
- Medidas: 21 cm
- Nº Pág.: 359
- Idiomas: Inglés
A panoramic history of rules in the Western world
Rules order almost every aspect of our lives. They set our work hours, dictate how we drive and set the table, tell us whether to offer an extended hand or cheek in greeting, and organize the rites of life, from birth through death. We may chafe under the rules we have, and yearn for ones we don't, yet no culture could do without them. In Rules, historian Lorraine Daston traces their development in the Western tradition and shows how rules have evolved from ancient to modern times. Drawing on a rich trove of examples, including legal treatises, cookbooks, military manuals, traffic regulations, and game handbooks, Daston demonstrates that while the content of rules is dazzlingly diverse, the forms that they take are surprisingly few and long-lived.
Daston uncovers three enduring kinds of rules: the algorithms that calculate and measure, the laws that govern, and the models that teach. She vividly illustrates how rules can change-how supple rules stiffen, or vice versa, and how once bothersome regulations become everyday norms. Rules have been devised for almost every imaginable activity and range from meticulous regulations to the laws of nature. Daston probes beneath this variety to investigate when rules work and when they don't, and why some philosophical problems about rules are as ancient as philosophy itself while others are as modern as calculating machines.
Rules offers a wide-angle view on the history of the constraints that guide us-whether we know it or not.
Introduction: The Hidden History of Rules 1
Clues to a Hidden History 1
Rules as Both Paradigms and Algorithms 5
Universals and Particulars 15
A History of the Self-Evident 20
2 Ancient Rules: Straightedges, Models, and Laws 23
Three Semantic Clusters 23
The Rule Is the Abbot 31
Following Models 40
Conclusion: Rules between Science and Craft 45
3 The Rules of Art: Head and Hand United 48
The Understanding Hand 48
Thick Rules 56
Rules at War 63
Cookbook Knowledge 70
Conclusion: Back and Forth, Betwixt and Between 76
4 Algorithms before Mechanical Calculation 82
The Classroom 82
What Was an Algorithm? 85
Generality without Algebra 94
Computing before Computers 106
Conclusion: Thin Rules 117
5 Algorithmic Intelligence in the Age of
Calculating Machines 122
Mechanical Rule-Following: Babbage versus
Wittgenstein 122
“First Organize, Then Mechanize”:
The Human-Machine Workflow 127
Mechanical Mindfulness 135
Algorithms and Intelligence 142
Conclusion: From Mechanical to Artificial Intelligence 147
6 Rules and Regulations 151
Laws, Rules, and Regulations 151
Five Hundred Years of Rule Failure:
The War on Fashion 155
Rules for an Unruly City: Policing the Streets
of Enlightenment Paris 169
Rules that Succeed Too Well: How and
How Not to Spell 188
Conclusion: From Rules to Norms 207
7 Natural Laws and Laws of Nature 212
The Grandest Rules of All 212
Natural Law 215
Laws of Nature 225
Conclusion: Universal Legality 233
8 Bending and Breaking Rules 238
At the Limit 238
Casuistry: Hard Cases and Tender Consciences 242
Equity: When the Law Commits Injustice 248
Prerogative and States of Exception:
Rulers and the Rule of Law 255
Conclusion: Which Came First, the Rule or the Exception? 265
