Nature and Normativity

<p><em>Nature and Normativity</em> argues that the problem of the place of norms in nature has been essentially misunderstood when it has been articulated in terms of the relation of human language and thought on the one hand and the world described by physics on the other. Rather if we concentrate on the facts that speaking and thinking are activities of organic agents then the problem of the place of the normative in nature becomes refocused on three related questions. First is there a sense in which biological processes and the behavior of organisms can be legitimately subject to normative evaluation? Second is there some sense in which in addition to having ordinary causal explanations organic phenomena can also legitimately be seen to happen <i>because</i> they <i>should</i> happen in that way in some naturalistically comprehensible sense of ‘should’ or that organic phenomena happen <i>in order to</i> achieve some result because that result should occur? And third is it possible to naturalistically understand how human thought and language can be legitimately seen as the normatively evaluable behavior of a particular species of organism behavior that occurs in order to satisfy some class of norms? This book develops articulates and defends positive answers to each of these questions.</p>