Normativity

Normativity concerns the standards of what people ought to do, believe, or value. It is a quality of rules, judgments, or concepts that prescribe how things should be or what individuals may, must, or must not do. Normative claims express what ought to be the case, such as "you should not smoke". They contrast with descriptive claims about what is the case, such as "you smoked yesterday". Normativity shapes many everyday activities, such as decision-making, evaluating outcomes, criticizing others, and justifying actions.

Researchers discuss many types of normativity. Practical normativity is about what to do, while theoretical normativity concerns what to believe. Deontic normativity deals with what is allowed, required, or forbidden, whereas evaluative normativity addresses the values underlying normative assessments. Objective normativity encompasses requirements that do not depend on personal views, in contrast to subjective normativity, which is about standards relative to subjective perspectives. A normative assessment is pro tanto if it is partial by only taking certain aspects into account, unlike all-things-considered judgments, which factor in all relevant aspects. Other distinctions are based on the domain of assessment, such as moral, social, legal, and linguistic norms. Some categories may overlap, and there are academic disagreements about whether all these types are genuine forms of normativity.

Various theories about the nature and sources of normativity have been proposed. Realists assert that there are objective facts about what is right and wrong, a view rejected by anti-realists. Naturalists and non-naturalists discuss whether normative facts are part of the empirical domain studied by the natural sciences. Cognitivists and non-cognitivists debate whether normative judgments can be true or false. Reductionists seek to explain normative concepts through non-normative ones, while primitivists deny that this is possible. Reason-based and value-based views disagree about whether normativity is ultimately grounded in reasons or values. Other theories address the authoritative force of normativity, its relation to the mind, and the sources of normative knowledge.

Several fields of inquiry study normative phenomena. In philosophy, ethics addresses practical normativity while epistemology deals with theoretical normativity. Psychology examines normative cognitions or how norms are learned, practiced, and sanctioned. Sociology and anthropology analyze social norms as shared and enforced rules that regulate communal behavior and vary across cultures. Linguistics deals with standards of correct language use, while law addresses the legitimacy of legal systems. Other related fields include economics, medicine, and neuroscience.