Living Together · ages 6–9
Who decides the rules?
A rule everyone follows and nobody agreed to. Is that still a rule?
Some rules come from a person (a teacher, a parent). Some come from a group (your class, your country). Some seem to arrive from nowhere (queueing, saying sorry) and nobody can remember starting them.
There is a difference between a rule and a law, and between a law and what feels right - which is why history is full of people who broke a law because it was unfair. Those people are called heroes or criminals, depending on who wins.
The interesting question is not ‘should we follow rules’ but ‘what makes a rule worth following?’ Danger? Agreement? Fairness? Usefulness? Most rules use a mix, and that mix is what we argue about.
Try it
Rewrite a rule. Pick one rule you live by (school, sport, home). Write what it is for, and then write your improved version. If you can make it shorter and better, you have understood it properly.
What do you think?
Do you think there is a right answer to this question?
Talk about it
- Is an unfair rule still a rule?
- When is breaking a rule the right thing?
- Do animals have rules?
Yes, but… — the arguments people actually make
Rules are just whatever the strongest person says.
Sometimes. But then ask why so many rules outlast the people who made them, and why breaking an unfair rule can feel like the bravest thing in a story.
If a rule is unfair, you should ignore it.
Then who decides unfair, and how do you show it? Everyone who breaks a rule thinks theirs was the exception — that is exactly why the argument needs more than being sure.
Rules stop you doing what you want.
So does having no rules, in a way you would notice quickly: nobody could guarantee anything, so nobody could plan anything.
What other philosophers think
- Thomas HobbesWithout agreed rules life is a war of everyone against everyone, so we trade some freedom for safety. Rules are a bargain, not a gift.
- Jean-Jacques RousseauRules are legitimate only when the people living under them had a hand in making them.
- H. L. A. HartDistinguished rules we are obliged to follow from rules we merely ought to follow — one is about power, the other about reasons.
- SocratesStayed to accept a death sentence from a rule he thought was wrong, arguing that if you accept a system's protection you cannot abandon its rulings when they go against you.
If you want to go further
- Leviathan — Thomas Hobbes1651. The bargain theory of rules, written during a civil war.
- The Concept of Law — H. L. A. HartThe clearest modern account of what makes a rule a rule.
- Crito — PlatoSocrates explains why he will not break a law he thinks is unjust. Short, and uncomfortable.
Most of these were written for adults, which is why it is worth reading them with someone older.