Cognitive Unconscious and Human Rationality by Laura Macchi Maria Bagassi

Author:Laura Macchi, Maria Bagassi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2016-03-18T00:00:00+00:00

Impersonal Performatives

Having distinguished deontic from causal contents in conditional rules, I now wish to make a more specific distinction between two subtypes of deontic content, namely impersonal rules that concern a class of people rather than a specific individual. Institutional deontics such as Taxpayers who donate to charity are permitted to claim a tax rebate (Bucciarelli & Johnson-Laird, 2005) may be considered to be forms of “social laws” (Cosmides, 1989) that differ from “social contracts” proposed between two individuals, for example, If you wash my motorcycle then you may ride it (e.g., Fiddick & Grafman, 2008). Such social contracts are often based on deals made by two individuals on a specific occasion, such as a wife proposing to her husband, If I prepare the dinner, you must take the children to the zoo on Sunday (see Legrenzi, Girotto, & Politzer, 1996, for a comprehensive theoretical analysis). In contrast to social contracts that refer to such specific deals, institutional deontics refers to formal, impersonal rules issued by an authority, such as If you are licensed by the District, then you may sell hotdogs on the Mall. Here the “you” can be read impersonally, and as applying to all people who possess this license. Institutional deontics of this kind are likely to be found in rule books produced by formally constituted social groups (nations, companies, or clubs) and are often expressed using formal rules that are expressed in the third person. Unambiguous institutional deontics are often phrased in the language of universal laws and regulations, such as Passengers of international flights have the duty to hold an identity card. They have the characteristics of laws (Hart, 1961) in that they are not addressed to a specific person, they are standing orders independent of any particular time with sanctions for violators, and they can only be felicitously established as a rule by an authority.

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