Fixed rules detach moral actors from experience and adaptability.

Evidence

Once again, Ambedkar seems to be alluding to his mentor Dewey (1922, 239), who writes: “As habits set in grooves dominate activity and swerve it from conditions instead of increasing its adaptability, so principles treated as fixed rules instead of as helpful methods take men away from experience. The more complicated the situation, and the less we really know about it, the more insistent is the orthodox type of moral theory upon the prior existence of some fixed and universal principle or law which is to be directly applied and followed.” There is a certain tension here between Dewey’s words—who seems critical of rigid application of principles—and those of Ambedkar, who advocates sound principles as the only possible foundation for morality. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1176

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Dewey’s pragmatist critique of principle-rigidity parallels Ambedkar’s broader attack on scriptural morality as a fixed, unadaptable foundation.

Related

• Rules prescribe mechanical actions while principles guide reflective judgment (similarity 0.80)
• Rules prescribe actions while principles guide judgment. (similarity 0.79)