This paper addresses von Wright’s problem concerning the consistency and existence of norms. As is well known, according to von Wright’s account, conflicting norms annihilate one another—that is, they cannot coexist. However, this conclusion appears counterintuitive. To ad-dress this issue, we propose a new account of the conditions under which norms can be said to exist. In brief, our approach distinguishes between the existence of a norm, which is grounded in a specific class of acts, and the consistency of a norm, which is tied to its possibility.
