Exemplarity

Exemplarity refers to the quality or state of being an exemplar—something or someone that serves as a model to be imitated or a standard by which others are measured. The term derives from Latin exemplar, meaning a pattern or sample, and is used across philosophy, rhetoric, education, and literary criticism to discuss how particular cases illustrate general norms.

In classical rhetoric, exemplum denotes a brief narrative or instance used to persuade by showing a concrete example of a general rule. Medieval and early modern sermons often employed exempla moralizing tales to shape conduct. In pedagogy, exemplars or exemplarity are used to establish performance standards; teachers select exemplar responses or tasks to define quality and guide learning.

In ethics and moral philosophy, exemplarity concerns moral exemplars—persons whose conduct is taken as a model of virtue or vice. The focus is on what makes a figure exemplary, how learners or readers should imitate them, and how social and cultural contexts shape which exemplars are recognized as legitimate. Some arguments critique reliance on individual exemplars as potentially ignoring systemic constraints or diverse forms of moral excellence.

Contemporary discussions explore the plural and contested nature of exemplarity, including the politics of whom we hold up as models and how imagined exemplars influence behavior, policy, and identity formation. Exemplarity also appears in literature and film as a narrative strategy in which a character's acts reveal universal truths through particular cases.