Rules and exceptions

When I was small I often wondered about the saying 'The exception strengthens the rule'. I thought I would share the three ways in which I have managed to make sense of the saying since then.

1. When there is an exception we explain it by citing a special explanation (e.g. when someone is crazy we invent a new category and do not modify our original category of normal – so the rule of what counts as normal does not alter, the rule does not change, it gets stronger because we can apply it.

2. When someone acts out of habit, against his usual dispositions, we can usually say that this does not change the pattern of his behaviour, and we relegate the case to an isolated category of exceptions.

3. Also, exceptions are cases not properly belonging into the set of cases that the rule covers. By making it explicit how they stand out, you can understand the rule better.

Any further comments? Did I terribly misunderstand something?