Rule-Following, Rule-Governance and Rule-Accord

Abstract

In this discussion, I describe my introduction to Rawls’ famous paper on rules and situate this in a broader intellectual context. I then attempt to locate its significance within developments in linguistics (especially in speech-act analysis) and also in ethnomethodology. My main idea is that Rawls’ concept of a ‘constitutive rule’ is in deep harmony with many of Wittgenstein’s insights into the same thematic.