Practical Rules: When We Need Them and When We Don't (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy) [Hardcover]

Alan H. Goldman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0521807298 | ISBN-13: 978-0521807296 | Edition: First Edition

Rules proliferate; some are kept with a bureaucratic stringency bordering on the absurd, while others are manipulated and ignored in ways that injure our sense of justice. Under what conditions should we make exceptions to rules, and when should they be followed despite particular circumstances? The two dominant models in the current literature on rules are the particularist account and that which sees the application of rules as normative. Taking a position that falls between these two extremes, Alan Goldman is the first to provide a systematic framework to clarify when we need to follow rules in our moral, legal, and prudential decisions, and when we ought not to do so.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Rules are all around us. They come in all shapes and sizes: legislative, bureaucratic, administrative, ethical, and religious. We break the rules now and then, but mostly we follow them. "But why?" asks Alan H. Goldman in Practical Rules. He then sets out to clarify why we have rules and why we're sometimes justified in ignoring them. In doing so, he mediates between two extremes, the "particularists," who recognize rules only with respect to circumstances, and genuine rule defenders, like the moral "prescriptivist" R.M. Hare.

Goldman is not just a theoretician concerned with giving an abstract description of rule making and breaking; because he is heavily invested in the everyday consequences of rules, Practical Rules will interest many nonphilosophers. In particular, he devotes nearly a quarter of the book to legal rules and illustrates his arguments with constitutional questions and ethical disagreements that broaden the book's appeal. At the same time he engages today's main thinkers on rules, including Robert Nozick, Ronald Dworkin, and John Rawls, who add depth and nuance to the arguments. --Eric de Place

Review

"The book is well organized into an introduction and four chapters...The service Goldman provides is realistic conception of ethical reasoning that recognizes human limitations...Goldman has provided an impressive example the sort of analytical reasoning that goes on behind the scene...Philosophers will see this book displaying clear analyses and well argued position...Goldman has also provided a real service to clinicians concerned with ethical behavior." Metapsychology Feb 28 2002

"Goldman makes his argument in a clear and convincing manner and successfully provides us with a model for moral reasoning that takes into account the differences between decision-making in the public sphere, in which rule-following is essential, and ordinary individual decision-making, in which rule following is not helpful but in which moral guidance is, nevertheless, still available to moral agents." - Marina P. Banchetti-Robino, Florida Atlantic University

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; First Edition edition (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521807298
• ISBN-13: 978-0521807296
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,944,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alan H. Goldman is the William R. Kenan Jr.Professor of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at the College of William & Mary. Before joining the faculty there in 2002, he taught for twenty-five years at the University of Miami, and he has held visiting positions at the University of Michigan, University of Colorado, and University of Auckland. He was educated at Yale (BA), Columbia (PhD), and Princeton (NEH Fellowship).