In 1879, French revolutionaries coined three large words to delimit and define a spirit that they wanted to fix and render unassailable. These key words are rethought, recast, decontextualised and recontextualised in innumerable ways, but they are often said to define something like fundamental (as maybe opposed to transient?) values. One sees that cascade of values in the deployment of these words everywhere in France. They feature in the French Constitution, right up to the charters that explain secularism as a universal desideratum n schools.

Yet, as values theorists often observe, the process of fixing things is actually very hard. Here in France, French State TV humorously but tellingly, recasts the three words as (in French of course) Liberty, Equality and NEWS; just a bit if levity, but viewed by millions with resonance. The past days have added another iteration of the revolutionary deontology, I think. At the opening Olympic ceremony with its own 'motto', some fascinating new themes including rights like a Right to Offend were generated. So:, it seems to me that deontology is often a locus for great creativity and equally great contest. The Olympic ceremony generated heat and love in equal measure from the Paris mayor to the Republican candidate for US President.

Given all of this, my question is simple: are there developed approaches to understanding instruments of deontology as a unity, evaluating how that network of many deontologies develops over time?