Normativity is what gives reasons their force, makes words
meaningful, and makes rules and laws binding. It is present
whenever we use such terms as ‘correct, ‘ ‘ought, ‘
‘must, ‘ and the language of obligation, responsibility, and
logical compulsion. Yet normativists, the philosophers committed to
this idea, admit that the idea of a non-causal normative realm and
a body of normative objects is spooky. Explaining the Normative is
the first systematic, historically grounded critique of
normativism. It identifies the standard normativist pattern of
argument, and shows how this pattern depends on circularities,
assumptions about the unique correctness of preferred descriptions,
problematic transcendental arguments, and regress arguments that
end in mysteries.
The book considers in detail a paradigm case: legal normativity
as constructed by Hans Kelsen. This case exemplifies the problems
with normativist arguments. But it also shows how normativism was
constructed as an alternative to ordinary social science
explanation. The normativist argument is that social science
explanations themselves are forced to rely on normative
conceptsÑminimally, on normative rationality and on a
normative view of ‘concepts’ themselves.
Empathic understanding of the reasoning and meanings of others,
however, can solve the regress problems about meaning and
rationality that are central to the appeal of normativism. This
account has no need for a parallel normative world, and has a
surprising and revealing lineage in the history of philosophy, as
well as a basis in neuroscience.
Table des matières
Introduction vii
Chapter 1 What Is the Problem of Normativity? 1
Chapter 2 The Confl ict with Science and Social Science 29
Chapter 3 A Paradigm Case: The Normativity of the Law 66
Chapter 4 Lustral Rites and Systems of Concepts 95
Chapter 5 Communities, Collective Intentions, and Group Reactions 119
Chapter 6 Rationality or Intelligibility 150
Epilogue 186
References 206
Index 216
A propos de l’auteur
Stephen Turner is a Graduate Research Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of South Florida
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