Article
Norm-expressivism and Regress
South African Journal of Philosophy
(2017)
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate Allan Gibbard’s norm-expressivist account of normativity. In particular, the aim is to see whether Gibbard’s theory is able to account for the normativity of reason-claims. For this purpose, I first describe how I come to targeting Gibbard’s theory by setting out the main tenets of quasi-realism cum expressivism. After this, I provide a detailed interpretation of the relevant parts of Gibbard’s theory. I argue that the best reading of his account is the one that takes normativity to be carried by a controlled, coherent, comprehensive set of norms. Finally, I present a potential obstacle to Gibbard’s approach: the regress problem. The idea is to examine the structure of the non-cognitive state expressed and find it inadequate due to the possibility of an infinite regress in the justification of the norms whose acceptance it contains. I then end the paper with some concluding remarks.
Keywords
- Norm-expressivism,
- normativity,
- reasons,
- non-cognitivism,
- Allan Gibbard
Disciplines
Publication Date
December 1, 2017
Citation Information
Attila Tanyi. "Norm-expressivism and Regress" South African Journal of Philosophy (2017) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/attila_tanyi/28/