Abstract

Challenging the traditional dichotomies between morals and law or between mores and law, this paper establishes a distinction between morals, manners and law as three distinctive types of social norms. They have to be distinguished, or so I argue, concerning the way they are created, concerning the way they are sanctioned and concerning the obligatory status we assign them. Lastly, each of these types has a peculiar function as regards the stabilization of behaviour in the respective society. The overall aim of this paper is to argue in favour of a close scrutinization both of the function of manners and of normative criteria to answer the question which of the many different, historically and culturally contingent sets of manners should be embraced as truly good manners.