Is Protestant Interpretation an Acceptable Attitude Toward Normative Social Practices? An Analysis of Dworkin and Postema

Abstract

Gerald Postema raised a powerful challenge to Ronald Dworkin’s theory of interpretation. By allowing each interpreter to make her own judgment about the content of a social norm, Dworkinian interpretation becomes insufficiently intersubjective and insufficiently political. In previous work, I argued that this criticism must be rejected because Postema’s own account of law, analogical reasoning, and the rule of law requires one to make a reflected judgment and hold other actors accountable to the law. Nevertheless, a powerful objection claims that protestant interpretation is incompatible with the first person-plural reasoning that an intersubjective social practice requires. In response to the objection, I argue that no such incompatibility exists. On closer examination, protestant interpretation is part of the attitude that a rational agent must adopt if she is to acquit her moral responsibilities as a participant in a social practice.