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John C.W. Touchie, "Jackson on the "Decisions" Underlying the Application of Rules", International Journal for the Semiotics of Law / Revue Internationale de Sémiotique Juridique Vol. X no.30 (1997), 317-335: This paper argues that Bernard Jackson's discussion of the application of "pure" propositional logic is fundamentally flawed. It examines the nature of the "decisions" that Jackson claims are a necessary concomitant of factual determinations of the predicate, and argues that if Jackson's analysis is correct, then contrary to Jackson's assertions, these "decisions" must also be made within the sphere of "pure" propositional logic. It further argues that Jackson's seemingly unobjectionable claims concerning the "decisions" that have to be made when applying rules have substantial, but frequently overlooked, implications for rule-based conduct governance and the notion of following and applying a rule, one of these being that the question of whether or not there is a "decision" to be made in applying a rule can only be determined by turning to an examination of its content and the environment to which it refers. Finally, a more general argument is made against Jackson's position by relating his claims to discussions of the philosophical notion of intentionality. The paper concludes with the suggestion that Jackson's arguments rest on unjustifiable, though commonly employed, assertions concerning the necessary conditions for intentionality. e-mail: John.Touchie@mq.edu.au

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