Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Critical Realism on 09/05/2019, available online: https://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767430.2019.1613852
Accepted author manuscript, 739 KB, PDF document
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Normativity and naturalism as if nature mattered
AU - Sayer, Andrew
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Critical Realism on 09/05/2019, available online: https://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767430.2019.1613852
PY - 2019/5/9
Y1 - 2019/5/9
N2 - The usual way of discussing normativity and naturalism is by running through a standard range of issues: the relations of fact and value, objectivity, reason and emotion, is and ought, and the so-called ‘naturalistic fallacy’. This is a naturalism that is virtually silent on nature. I outline an alternative approach that relates normativity to our nature as living beings, for whom specific things are good or bad for us. Our nature as evaluative beings is shown to be rooted in and emergent from this biological normativity. There is also significant downward causation, such that our brain-bodies are continually modified by our experienceand thoughts. Cultures, as emergent from the affordances of our brain-bodies, create further extensive, irreducible sources of normativity, albeit ones which do not wholly escape biological normativity and can impact back on it.
AB - The usual way of discussing normativity and naturalism is by running through a standard range of issues: the relations of fact and value, objectivity, reason and emotion, is and ought, and the so-called ‘naturalistic fallacy’. This is a naturalism that is virtually silent on nature. I outline an alternative approach that relates normativity to our nature as living beings, for whom specific things are good or bad for us. Our nature as evaluative beings is shown to be rooted in and emergent from this biological normativity. There is also significant downward causation, such that our brain-bodies are continually modified by our experienceand thoughts. Cultures, as emergent from the affordances of our brain-bodies, create further extensive, irreducible sources of normativity, albeit ones which do not wholly escape biological normativity and can impact back on it.
KW - Normativity
KW - naturalism
KW - biology
KW - culture
M3 - Journal article
VL - 18
JO - Journal of Critical Realism
JF - Journal of Critical Realism
SN - 1476-7430
ER -