ABSTRACT
The discussion so far has focused on some of the chief features of the civil context as a context shaped by reasons and norm-governed activity of many kinds. Also, we have considered some of the values and principles relevant to understanding the rule of law in a liberal democracy. Our discussion provides a way of answering a skeptic who says, “I've never seen a norm. Where would one have to go to see something so exotic? People might have various beliefs about norms but social scientists do not encounter norms as such among the phenomena they study.” We can point out that just by virtue of participating in a coherent conversation, one in which words are being used in appropriate, meaningful ways one's behavior is governed by norms. They are hardly exotic, if part of what “exotic” means is that the thing is rarely encountered and is radically unlike anything with which we are familiar in our experience. It is true that one does not encounter a norm in just the same way as one encounters a desk or a sandwich, but linguistic competence, the ability to describe things coherently, following someone's reasoning, and recognizing behavior as an instance of some specific type all involve grasping norms.
