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Philosophy vocabulary · Ethics and Moral Philosophy

Normative

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ˈnɔːmətɪv/adjectiveCommon term

In philosophy, normative means: Concerned with how things ought to be, or with what is good, right or reasonable, rather than with describing how things actually are.

In Turkish: normatif, kural koyucu, düzgüsel

How it is used

Contrasted with descriptive or empirical. Normative ethics asks which actions are right, and normative claims contain words like ought, should, good and wrong. Hume's is-ought problem asks how normative conclusions can follow from purely descriptive premises.

Example sentences

  1. 'Most people eat meat' is descriptive; 'people ought to eat less meat' is normative.

  2. Your conclusion is normative, but all your premises are factual. Where does the 'ought' come from?

Common collocations

  • normative ethics
  • normative claim
  • normative theory
  • normative and descriptive
  • ethicsThe branch of philosophy that studies right and wrong, good and bad, and how we ought to live and treat one another.
  • metaethicsThe branch of ethics that asks what moral claims mean, whether they can be true or false and how we could know them, rather than which actions are right.
  • empiricalBased on observation, experience or experiment rather than on pure reasoning or theory.
  • consequentialismThe view that whether an action is right or wrong depends only on its consequences, so the best action is the one with the best outcome.

More terms: Ethics and Moral Philosophy

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