Abstract:This essay explores the way Angelo and Isabella appeal to rules in their attempts to justify the legality or ethics of their actions, and thus relieve themselves of the burden of responsibility. ("It is the law, not I, condemn your brother.") However, the play will confront them with the truth that all rules, even the most precise, require a human agent to use them in a particular context. ("O, it is excellent / To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous / To use it like a giant.") No rule is so determining that it can determine its own uses. However, for Angelo and Isabella to justify their uses, which cannot be done by appealing again to the rule, not only burdens them with responsibility but also makes their actions seem arbitrary—potentially resting on nothing more than personal inclination. I therefore characterize the drama of Measure for Measure as an oscillation between the authority of the rules with which human agency is stamped, and a recognition of the contingent human agent that bears the stamp. I argue that this drama has similarities with Ludwig Wittgenstein's characterization of our problematic understanding of any rule-governed activity, including language: we aspire to justify our practices with rules that have the precision and objectivity of a mathematical calculus, but we are inevitably thrown back upon our own uses, which seem comparatively unruly and imprecise.

中文翻译：

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寻找补救措施：衡量衡量标准，双关语，规则

摘要：本文探讨了安吉洛和伊莎贝拉如何诉诸规则，试图为其行为的合法性或道德辩护，从而减轻自己的责任负担。（“这是法律，而不是我，谴责你的兄弟。”）然而，该剧将让他们面对一个事实，即所有规则，即使是最精确的，都需要人类代理在特定环境中使用它们。（“哦，它是优秀的/拥有巨人的力量，但它是暴虐的/像巨人一样使用它。”）没有规则如此确定，它可以决定自己的用途。然而，对于安吉洛和伊莎贝拉来说，为他们的使用辩护，这不能通过再次诉诸规则来实现，这不仅使他们承担了责任，而且使他们的行为显得武断——可能只是基于个人倾向。因此，我将 Measure for Measure 的戏剧性描述为在人类代理所印有的规则的权威与对带有印记的偶然的人类代理的承认之间的摇摆不定。我认为，这部戏剧与路德维希·维特根斯坦 (Ludwig Wittgenstein) 对我们对任何受规则约束的活动（包括语言）有问题的理解的描述有相似之处：我们渴望用具有数学演算精度和客观性的规则来证明我们的实践，但我们不可避免地被退回根据我们自己的用途，这似乎比较不守规矩和不精确。