Paper 14
A note on norms and evidence
There are two senses of the concept “norm”: one is descriptive and weakly explanatory, and the other is causal or prescriptive and more strongly explanatory. Studying norms in the causal sense means looking for plausible links between observed regularities and evidence of normative force: this may be found in belief statements, in criticism of norm-breaking, or in norm statements. Norms are explanatory hypotheses, and can be tested in various ways.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The two senses
- 3.Descriptive and explanatory
- 4.Regularities
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5.Evidence of normative force
- Belief statements
- Explicit criticism
- Norm statements
- 6.Testing hypotheses about norms
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Note