VALUES · NORMATIVE PRACTICES IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE. A THEORETICAL MODELING OF FORMS OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

In this research project I propose an approach to normativity and to the functioning of norms in the coordination of social life that is based upon a theory of normativity as practice. The aim of this project is threefold. Firstly, to show that our understanding of normativity remains utterly opaque as long as we do not take into account the plurality of empirical practices through which normative regulations are effected. Secondly, to prove that sociality is one of the central sources of normativity and that the functioning of normativity cannot be fully understood unless the epistemic implications of the social dimension are considered. Thirdly, to develop a theoretical model and conceptual tools to be used in the analysis and resolution of moral disagreements and political controversies. A pragmatist epistemology of practices is the conceptual framework within which this project has been conceived, while the theory of rationality as a social institution is the conception of rationality that grounds it. Jointly, these approaches require and justify the thoroughly interdisciplinary approach to normativity that this project intends to pursue.""