Comment by zarzavat
3 years ago
If you believe that the spirit of rules is more important than the text, then those people were obeying the spirit of the rule to not include exceptions, not the text.
3 years ago
If you believe that the spirit of rules is more important than the text, then those people were obeying the spirit of the rule to not include exceptions, not the text.
Those people failed to follow the spirit of the quiz.
Following the letter of the law or rule to an absurd conclusion without any common sense is a typical example of bureaucratic nightmares.
It should be comforting that people are able to use independent judgement when faced with a nonsensical situation, situations that illustrates a glaring lack of detail to the law or rule rather than anything else.
Basically the more terse a rule is, the more it requires the enforcer to use their own judgment.
That game would only be supportive of the point the author wants to make if the rule had a few paragraphs of examples and defined vehicle.
Instead the author hand waved away the case of a rule with examples by saying that nit picker could always find ambiguity. So instead they gave a overt terse rule that defies common sense. It’s a strawman attempt of a example.
> Following the letter of the law or rule to an absurd conclusion without any common sense is a typical example of bureaucratic nightmares.
Deciding that something violates the letter of the law is not an absurd conclusion. That's just step one, and the more important places to involve judgement come after that step.
We should first examine the origins of morality. That will allow us to understand the goals and motivations behind rules. If one of the goals of a moral system is also to get across the message that "We are in charge, remember it and don't mess with us or with the system", then deliberately vague rules are a feature of the system for those that can benefit and wield the law and social opinion against others. Rules can be interpreted to the advantage of the group that runs the show.