I. Introductory: 1. Might we be essentially normative animals? / Neil Roughley -- 2. On Social, Moral and Linguistic Norms. The Contributions to This Volume / Neil Roughley and Kurt Bayertz -- II. Social norms: 3. There Ought to be Roots. Evolutionary Precursors of Social Norms and Conventions in Non-Human Primates / Peter Kappeler, Claudia Fichtel and Carel van Schaik -- 4. On the Human Addiction to Norms. Social Norms and Cultural Universals of Normativity / Christoph Antweiler -- 5. On the Identification and Analysis of Social Norms and the Heuristic Relevance of Deviant Behaviour / Karl Mertens -- 6. On the Uniqueness of Human Normative Attitudes / Marco F.H. Schmidt and Hannes Rakoczy -- III. Moral norms: 7. The Evolution of Human Normativity: The Role of Prosociality and Reputation Mangagement / Carel van Schaik and Judith Burkart -- 8. The Form of Morality: Its Importance and Emergence / Kurt Bayertz -- 9. Joint Activities and Moral Obligation / Holmer Steinfath -- 10. The Development of Moral and Social Norms, Coordination in Decision-Making and the Implications of Social Opposition / Elliot Turiel and Audun Dahl -- 11. Moral Obligation from the Outside In / Neil Roughley -- Linguistic norms?: 12. Language evolution and linguistic norms / Nikola Kompa -- 13. The Normative Nature of Language / Nick J. Enfield, Jack Sidnell -- 14. Can there be Linguistic Norms? / Anne Reboul -- 15. The Normativity of Meaning Revisited / Hanjo Glock -- V. Afterword:16. Normative Guidance, Deontic Statuses and the Normative Animal Thesis / Neil Roughley -- References.
Summary:
It is often claimed that humans are rational, linguistic, cultural, or moral creatures. What these characterizations may all have in common is the more fundamental claim that humans are normative animals, in the sense that they are creatures whose lives are structured at a fundamental level by their relationships to norms. The various capacities singled out by discussion of rational, linguistic, cultural, or moral animals might then all essentially involve an orientation to obligations, permissions and prohibitions. And, if this is so, then perhaps it is a basic susceptibility, or proclivity to normative or deontic regulation of thought and behaviour that enables humans to develop the various specific features of their life form.0This volume of new essays investigates the claim that humans are essentially normative animals in this sense. The contributors do so by looking at the nature and relations of three types of norms, or putative norms-social, moral, and linguistic-and asking whether they might all be different expressions of one basic structure unique to humankind. These questions are posed by philosophers, primatologists, behavioural biologists, psychologists, linguists, and cultural anthropologists, who have0collaborated on this topic for many years. The contributors are committed to the idea that understanding normativity is a two-way process, involving a close interaction between conceptual clarification and empirical research.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.