The Roots of Normativity

The Roots of Normativity concerns one of the most basic philosophical questions: how to explain normativity in its many guises. Over many decades, Joseph Raz has sought to develop an answer to this question, according to which understanding normativity is understanding the roles and structures of normative reasons which, when they are reasons for action, are based on values. This volume collects twelve chapters which succinctly lay out his view, and determine its contours through some of its applications. The chapters also aim to clarify the ways in which normative reasons are made for rational beings like us. Raz's value-based account of normativity is brought to bear on many aspects of the lives of rational beings and their agency, and in particular, their ability to form and maintain relationships, and to live their lives as social beings with a sense of their identity.

Joseph Raz, King's College London

Joseph Raz is Research Professor of Law at King's College London. He has held teaching positions at the University of Oxford and Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.


Ulrike Heuer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at University College London. She previously worked at the University of Leeds, the University of Pennsylvania, Barnard College, New York, and Columbia University. Her research is mainly in ethics and philosophy of action.

Introduction by Ulrike Heuer
Part I: Normativity in Action
1. Intention and Value (2017)
2. Intention and Motivation (unpublished)
3. Normativity: The Place of Reasoning (2015)
4. Can Moral Principles Change? (unpublished)
Part II: Reasons and Values
5. Value and the Weight of Practical Reasons (2016)
6. The Guise of the Bad (2016)
7. Normative Powers (unpublished)
8. Is There a Reason to Keep a Promise? (2014)
Part III: The Normative in Our Lives
9. The Role of Well-Being (2004)
10. Attachments and Associated Reasons (unpublished)
11. Identity and Social Bonds (unpublished)
12. Normativity and the Other (unpublished)
References
Index