For economy of thought, if for no other reason, moral norms are often regarded as emanating from general rules to be applied in various situations.

There is an obvious and severe tension between the approach to norms introduced in Chapters 9–11 and the rule-based approach to be pursued in this chapter. In the previous chapters, the normative appraisal of each situation was based on the value appraisal of that same situation. Nothing prevented the uniqueness of each particular situation from being taken fully into account. In a rule-based approach, to the contrary, all appraisals of (the potentially infinite range of) possible situations have to be based on a (necessarily finite) set of predetermined general principles. Both approaches are common in informal moral discourse (but for obvious reasons the rule-bound approach dominates in legal contexts). They are not easy to reconcile, and since they reflect different patterns of actual normative discourse it is not at all evident that they can be reconciled in a nonmisleading way.

Section 12.1 introduces rules and Section 12.2 some basic principles for their application to factual situations. In Sections 12.3–12.5, three types of application are investigated. Finally, Sections 12.6–12.8 are devoted to changes in the moral code (promulgations and derogations).

RULES AND INSTANTIATIONS

Normative rules can be, roughly, of the forms expressed in the following sentences:

1. “You are not allowed to be cruel to animals.”

2. “You are allowed to read all unclassified government documents.”

3. […]