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The presumption, which I think is highly justified in reality, is that if someone went to the trouble of explicitly stating an act is allowed during a particular period of time/place/whatever, that implies that it's not allowed or at least discouraged outside of those specific circumstances.
Rules are not necessarily adhered to 100% of the time, in the hospital from which I'm shit posting, there is a rule regarding the timings when visitors are allowed, the typical person coming outside of that will be turned away, but if you're connected or have an important reason, you'll be let through. That does not invalidate the general principle that visitors aren't allowed outside the allotted time.
It might well be that the security guard was napping and didn't notice, but that doesn't mean there isn't a rule, in the same manner that successfully launching a heist on Fort Knox isn't proof that stealing is legal.
Yeah, it makes sense that sometimes it's just easier to state the exceptions than all the allowed cases. And apparently the Latin origin of the phrase, "exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis," is something like "the exception demonstrates the rule for non-excepted cases", so I don't really have an etymological leg to stand on. I just like my understanding of the phrase so if we are going to move away from the original meaning, I'm trying to steer people towards my preference rather than the nonsensical "the counter-example that invalidates my supposed rule actually proves that my rule is correct!"
Edit: After discussion with AI, I have decided that I need to be charitable and allow that the common, modern usage also is sensible, under this interpretation: "the exception proves the rule" --> "the distinctiveness and memorability of an exception highlight the regularity or norm of other cases"
In cognitive psychology, there's a concept known as the "von Restorff effect" or "isolation effect," which states that an item that "stands out like a sore thumb" is more likely to be remembered than other items. Applying this to the phrase, an exception is memorable precisely because it deviates from the norm. Its uniqueness and the mental emphasis we place on it implicitly reinforce the understanding that it is an outlier, while the standard or usual cases don't stand out in memory because they conform to the expected pattern.
This is nice. I always assumed the intended meaning must be something related to this, until I learned the real origin. IE, something like "Okay, we admit this is an exception (points at really weird special case), but look how far we had to go to come up with an exception - clearly the rule is going to apply the overwhelming majority of the time."
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Stop making my sworn enemies seem reasonable, you're doing far too good a job at it!
shakes fist
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