Choosing Normative Concepts

by Matti Eklund

Theorists working on metaethics and the nature of normativity typically study goodness, rightness, what ought to be done, and so on. In their investigations they employ and consider our actual normative concepts. But the actual concepts of goodness, rightness, and what ought to be done are only some of the possible normative concepts there are. There are other possible concepts, ascribing different properties. Matti Eklund explores the consequences of this thought, for example for the debate over normative realism, and for the debate over what it is for concepts and properties to be normative. Conceptual engineering - the project of considering how our concepts can be replaced by better ones - has become a central topic in philosophy. Eklund applies this methodology to central normative concepts and discusses the special complications that arise in this case. For example, since talk of improvement is itself normative, how should we, in the context, understand talk of a concept
being better?

Genres: Philosophy

232 pages, Hardcover

Published October 17, 2017

Reviews

[saml · Rating 2 out of 5]

really find this style hard to get to grips with. it's quite hard for me to read. it's poised rather deftly in lots of different disputes and carves a way about them, naturally culminating in agnosticism. that doesn't seem sufficiently excited to me. i think presentationalism—the view that normativity exists only in our representations of the world and not the world itself—is really exciting. it's like the exact opposite of stern's kant. why not believe it? go on. live a little

[José Pereira · Rating 4 out of 5]

An example of pro structuring and all round subject mastery. Extremely forceful.
It’s a generational intervention but what it (fairly) leaves unanswered does diminish its sense of importance. More words on the metaphilosophical side or even some soft speculation on referentially normative predicates would’ve been fine.