Can action be normative? Some preliminary remarks

Michał Piekarski

doi:10.21697/2016.52.3.05

Published: 2018-02-13

Vol. 52 No. 3 (2016)

Can action be normative? Some preliminary remarks

Michał Piekarski

Studia Philosophiae Christianae

Section: Papers

https://doi.org/10.21697/2016.52.3.05

Abstract

This article concerns the problem of the normativity of action. In what sense can we say that actions are normative? Can we explain the normativity of action by reference to some established norms, by a relation to the language-user’s knowledge, or through regularities of social practice? Engaging with Robert Brandom, who distinguishes two ways of understanding the relation between rules and their application (regulism and regularism), the author claims that rules are a kind of actions that are normative per se. This view entails that those actions can establish norms and rules of action. Hence, it seems that Brandom’s distinction doesn’t exhaust the realm of all possible relations between actions and norms.

Keywords:

normativity, action, rule, neopragmatism, Brandom Robert, Sellars Wilfrid, Wittgenstein Ludwig

Can action be normative? Some preliminary remarks

Abstract

Keywords:

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