THE RULES OF ABSTRACTION: In the course of my research, much of which relates to selection of legal and ethical decision rules, I've often pondered the meaning of the word "rule" itself. What does it actually mean to have a rule, or to be guided by one? The more I think about it, the more I think that a rule means a prescription for action that relies on an intermediate degree of abstraction. When rules become either too abstract or too situation-specific, they begin to lose their rule-like character.
Take the rules of etiquette. One rule is to say "Thank you" when someone gives you a gift or performs a service for you; another is to say "Please" when you wish someone to do something for you; and so on. Now, imagine if we replaced these rules with a single, highly abstract directive to just "Be polite." That directive would not provide much useful guidance. Lacking more information, the decision-maker would have to decide for each and every interaction what would be a "polite" thing to do.
[Deleted boring comment. Oy. Gotta use that "save as draft" button more often.]
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