ABSTRACT
Rules are made to be broken. Having achieved cliché status, this piece of ancient wisdom is more enunciated than examined. But the logic underlying the adage is far from straightforward. First, because “rules are made to be broken” is itself a type of rule, a self-referential paradox presents itself: is the rule that “rules are made to be broken” made to be broken? But even leaving aside this conundrum, the saying is perplexing. Try explaining it to an eight-year-old. Why make a rule in the first place if it is to be broken? Were the great law givers of antiquity engaged in acts of futility? Should Moses, upon descending Sinai and beholding the incongruence of his laws with human behavior, have smashed those initial tablets and just left it at that?
