rulefollowing

Rule-following is the act of acting in accordance with a rule, standard, or norm. Rules may be explicit, such as laws and procedures, or implicit, such as social conventions or game conventions. Rule-following involves recognizing when a rule applies and then adapting behavior to comply, which often requires interpretation and judgment in cases of ambiguity or conflict between rules.

In philosophy, rule-following has been discussed as a problem of how rules are known and applied. Ludwig Wittgenstein argued that there is no private criterion for correctly applying a rule, and that rule-following is grounded in shared practices within a community. The issue highlights tensions between internal mental representations and external norms, and it relates to debates about private language and rule-skepticism.

In psychology and cognitive science, rule-governed behavior refers to actions guided by explicit instructions or internalized norms, as opposed to reflexive stimulus–response habits. People learn rules through instruction, practice, and feedback, and apply them flexibly in new situations. Studies examine how rules are stored, retrieved, and revised, and how rule complexity affects performance and generalization.

In social and legal contexts, rule-following underpins institutions, enforcement, and social order. Compliance may be motivated by internal beliefs (norms) or external pressures (sanctions, incentives). Noncompliance can lead to penalties, reputational damage, or loss of legitimacy for organizations or states.

In artificial intelligence and computer science, rule-based systems operate by applying if-then rules to data, enabling transparent reasoning and explainability. Critics note that such systems rely on the rules supplied by humans and may struggle with ambiguity or novel situations that require judgment beyond formal rules, raising questions about machine understanding of normative guidance.