Foundations of Hum

an Interaction

21www.oup.com

Foundations of Human Interaction

Foundations of Human Interaction Series

Series Editor: N.J. En� eld

Contributors

Christoph Antweiler, Kurt Bayertz, Judith Burkart, Audun Dahl, N. J. Enfi eld,

Claudia Fichtel, Hans-Johann Glock, Peter M. Kappeler, Nikola Kompa,

Karl Mertens, Hannes Rakoczy, Anne Reboul, Neil Roughley,

Marco F. H. Schmidt, Jack Sidnell, Holmer Steinfath, Elliot Turiel,

Carel P. van Schaik

Edited by N E I L R O U G H L E Y & K U R T B AY E R T Z

THE

NORMATIVE

ANIMAL?

ON the A N T H ROPOLOGICA L SIGN I F ICA NC E of

SOCI A L, MOR A L, and L I NGU ISTIC NOR MS

Humans, it is often claimed, are rational,

linguistic, cultural, or moral creatures.

What these characterizations may all have

in common is the more fundamental claim

that humans are normative animals, in the

sense that they are creatures whose lives

are structured at a fundamental level by

their relationships to norms. The various

capacities singled out by talk of rational,

linguistic, cultural, or moral animals might

then all essentially involve an orientation to

obligations, permissions, and prohibitions.

And, if this is so, then perhaps it is a basic

susceptibility or proclivity to normative or

deontic regulation of thought and behavior

that enables humans to develop the various

specifi c features of their life form.

This volume of new essays investigates the

claim that humans are essentially normative

animals in this sense. The contributors do so

by looking at the nature and relations of three

types of norms, or putative norms—social,

moral, and linguistic—and asking whether

they might all be different expressions of

one basic structure unique to humankind.

These questions are posed by philosophers,

primatologists, behavioral biologists,

psychologists, linguists, and cultural

anthropologists, who have collaborated on

this topic for many years. The contributors

are committed to the idea that understanding

normativity is a two-way process, involving

a close interaction between conceptual

clarifi cation and empirical research.

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NEIL ROUGHLEY is Chair for Philosophical

Anthropology and Ethics at the University

of Duisburg-Essen. He specializes in

metaethics, action theory, philosophical

psychology, and the theory of human

nature. His historical interests include the

classical fi gures of ethical sentimentalism,

particularly Adam Smith and David Hume,

as well as the history of action theory. He is

author of Wanting and Intending: Elements

of a Philosophy of Practical Mind (Springer

Macmillan, 2015), has edited several

volumes, including Forms of Fellow Feeling:

Empathy, Sympathy, Concern and Moral

Agency (Cambridge University Press, 2018),

and was recently guest editor of a special

issue of Philosophical Psychology, vol. 31/5

(2018), on Tomasello’s A Natural History of

Human Morality.

KURT BAYERTZ is Senior-Professor of Practical

Philosophy at the University of Münster. His

research focuses on ethics, anthropology,

and selected topics in the history of

philosophy. His monographs include

GenEthics: Technological Intervention in

Human Reproduction as a Philosophical

Problem (Cambridge University Press,

1994), Warum überhaupt moralisch sein?

(C. H. Beck, 2014), Der aufrechte Gang. Eine

Geschichte des anthropologischen Denkens

(C. H. Beck, 2014), and Interpretieren, um zu

verändern. Karl Marx und seine Philosophie

(C. H. Beck, 2018). His book Der aufrechte

Gang (The Upright Posture) received the

Tractatus Prize for philosophy.

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