Challenging the Constitutive Rules Inviolability Dogma

• Main Authors: Guglielmo Feis, Umberto M. Sconfienza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Firenze University Press 2016-11-01
• Series: Phenomenology and Mind
• Subjects: constitutive rules; inviolability dogma
• Online Access: https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/pam/article/view/7094

According to Searle (1969) a constitutive rule creates the very possibility of the entity it rules. Later on, other scholars - such as Benoist (2003), Conte (1983), Guastini (1983) - pointed out the inviolability of constitutive rules. In this paper we want to challenge the inviolability dogma by asking the following question: is it possible to have violations of constitutive rules? We will argue that a parametrical approach to constitutive rules can do away with the inviolability dogma. As a result, our approach allows for violations and introduces two different ways of exiting a game (semantic exit vs. practical exit).