Lorraine Daston on the surprising history of rules

We live in societies saturated with rules. Some unpopular, some resisted, but also some that are so unspoken and engrained that we would never dare break them. So should leaders be tempted by their instinct to make more of them? Perhaps by understanding their complexities and contradictions, we might become better decision makers. In today’s episode, Lorraine Daston sweeps us through history to learn about the different types of rules that govern our lives. We learn about the concept of ’thick’ and ’thin’ rules, why rules that restrict individual expression are often doomed to fail, and how in some cases it might take generations, centuries even, for a rule to take hold.

Lorraine Daston is Director emerita of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Her book ‘Rules: A Short History of What We Live By’ is available on Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691156989/rules

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