Social norm emergence is commonly explained by stating that norms serve certain functions – for example, solving cooperation or coordination problems. But critics argue that examples of norms that do not seem to serve functions show that functions cannot explain social norms. However, both sides tend to make assumptions about how explanations of social norms in terms of functions would work. By discussing four problems for these assumptions, I will show that they are over-simplified. Instead of asking whether norms serve functions, we need to ask more specific questions about the relationship between the norm and the function it supposedly serves.

中文翻译：

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理性重构与功能问题

社会规范的出现通常被解释为规范服务于某些功能——例如，解决合作或协调问题。但批评者认为，似乎不为功能服务的规范的例子表明，功能无法解释社会规范。然而，双方都倾向于对从功能角度解释社会规范的运作方式做出假设。通过讨论这些假设的四个问题，我将表明它们被过度简化了。与其问规范是否服务于功能，我们还需要就规范与其假定服务的功能之间的关系提出更具体的问题。