Dr Hans-Johann Glock | University of Zürich
Hans-Johann Glock is Professor of Philosophy and Head of Department at the University of Zurich (Switzerland), as well as Visiting Professor at the University of Reading (UK) and a recipient of a Humboldt Research Prize.
He has published several monographs and anthologies with leading publishers (Wiley-Blackwell, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge). He is also the author of numerours articles in international peer-reviewed journals on topics in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of animal minds, theory of action, the history and meta-philosophy of analytic philosophy and Wittgenstein.
Title | 'Normativity––a ‘Standard’ Account'
Abstract:
Normativity is recognized as hugely important across many different areas. At the same time, it is contested whether normativity fits into a naturalistic worldview. This state cries out for a working definition of normativity. Yet it is widely held that a general explanation of what normativity amounts to is neither feasible nor necessary.
My first objective is to establish that it is both necessary and feasible to define normativity. The second is to develop and defend a ‘standard’ account of normativity.
There is a minimalist yet general notion of a norm as a standard against which something can be assessed. This basic notion takes on various forms, depending on the parameters of assessment—as being of a certain kind (classificatory normativity), good or bad (evaluative normativity), prescribed or prohibited (deontic normativity).
The third objective is to show that this ‘standard’ account demystifies normativity without relying on received variants of naturalism. Normativity embodies concepts and knowledge that cannot be reduced to physical ones. But it rests ultimately on the mental and linguistic capacities of flesh-and-blood creatures, and the genesis and causal mechanisms of those capacities can be fully explained by natural science.