Rules : a short history of what we live by / Lorraine Daston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Daston, Lorraine, 1951- author.

Series:

Lawrence Stone lectures.

The Lawrence Stone lectures ; v.23

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authority.

Order (Philosophy).

Algorithms.

Law.

Natural law.

Computer algorithms.

Ethics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (385 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2022]

Summary:

"We are, all of us, everywhere, always, enmeshed in a web of rules and constraints. Rules fix the beginning and end of the working day and the school year, direct the ebb and flow of traffic on the roads, dictate who can be married to whom and how, place the fork to the right or the left of the plate, lay down the meter and rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet, and order the rites of birth and death. Cultures notoriously differ as to the content of their rules, but there is no culture without rules. In this book, historian of science Lorraine Daston adopts a long term perspective for studying rules from diverse sources, including monastic orders, cookbooks, and mathematical algorithms. She argues that in the Western tradition most rules can be characterized as one of the following: tools of measurement and calculation, models or paradigms, or laws. Moreover, they exist on spectra from specific to general, flexible to rigid and the specific-to-general, and universal-to-particular. In investigating how rules work, how they don't work, how they've changed across time, and why exceptions are necessary, Daston paints a vivid picture of Western civilization from the antiquity to the present"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1. Introduction: The Hidden History of Rules

Clues to a Hidden History

Rules as Both Paradigms and Algorithms

Universals and Particulars

A History of the Self-Evident

2. Ancient Rules: Straightedges, Models, and Laws

Three Semantic Clusters

The Rule Is the Abbot

Following Models

Conclusion: Rules between Science and Craft

3. The Rules of Art: Head and Hand United

The Understanding Hand

Thick Rules

Rules at War

Cookbook Knowledge

Conclusion: Back and Forth, Betwixt and Between

4. Algorithms before Mechanical Calculation

The Classroom

What Was an Algorithm?

Generality without Algebra

Computing before Computers

Conclusion: Thin Rules

5. Algorithmic Intelligence in the Age of Calculating Machines

Mechanical Rule-Following: Babbage versus Wittgenstein

"First Organize, Then Mechanize": The Human-Machine Workflow

Mechanical Mindfulness

Algorithms and Intelligence

Conclusion: From Mechanical to Artificial Intelligence

6. Rules and Regulations

Laws, Rules, and Regulations

Five Hundred Years of Rule Failure: The War on Fashion

Rules for an Unruly City: Policing the Streets of Enlightenment Paris

Rules that Succeed Too Well: How and How Not to Spell

Conclusion: From Rules to Norms

7. Natural Laws and Laws of Nature

The Grandest Rules of All

Natural Law

Laws of Nature

Conclusion: Universal Legality

8. Bending and Breaking Rules

At the Limit

Casuistry: Hard Cases and Tender Consciences

Equity: When the Law Commits Injustice

Prerogative and States of Exception: Rulers and the Rule of Law

Conclusion: Which Came First, the Rule or the Exception?

Epilogue: More Honored in the Breach.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691239187

0691239185

OCLC:

1314625806