The Possibility of Norms

This book elaborates on a concept of the normative. It aims to explicate what is meant when norms are spoken of as such. Hence, this book is only concerned with developing a concept of the normative; it seeks to crystallize that which makes a norm a norm. In doing so, the focus is limited to a concept of social norms, of norms that have arisen out of a social context. Questions with which every practice of social norms sees itself confronted are compared and contrasted with philosophical theories of the morally appropriate. What implication does it have for the value and accuracy of philosophical theories of morally right action that social norms need a location, a time, and a form of illustration, that one has to be able to perceive them? Along such a line of inquiry, moral norms represent an important reference, though frequently they are only used as a contrast. Social norms such as religious commandments, legal prescriptions, or rules of etiquette operate quite differently from norms that are typically debated in practical philosophy. The commonalities of social norms are thus the object of this book.