normatives

Normatives are standards, principles, or rules that express values, duties, or ideals and guide judgment and action. They function as criteria for evaluating what ought to be done, what is desirable, or what counts as acceptable behavior within a given domain. The term is used across disciplines to contrast prescriptive norms with descriptive accounts of how things are.

In philosophy, normative statements claim that certain actions or states are good, right, or obligatory. They differ from descriptive statements, which merely describe facts. Normatives can be prescriptive (requiring a particular action) or proscriptive (forbidding it), and they typically demand justification or reasons beyond mere preference.

Normativity appears in several domains. In normative ethics, theories seek general principles about what one ought to do. In law, normative jurisprudence asks what laws ought to be and how legal systems should be justified. In the social sciences, social norms are customary standards of behavior that a group enforces through social approval or sanctions. Epistemic norms regulate belief formation and justification, such as the obligation to assess evidence fairly and avoid contradiction.

Approaches to normatives emphasize justification, coherence, and universality versus context-sensitivity. Debates often focus on objectivity and cultural variation: whether normative claims can be universal or are historically contingent. Normative analysis also underpins policy-making, professional codes, and education, shaping expectations, duties, and standards across institutions.

Overall, normatives provide the standards by which actions and states are judged, helping to organize moral, legal, social, and practical life.