Norms in Nature: Rethinking the Natural Side of Normativity. Towards a New Hegelian Paradigm

Project Information

NINA

Grant agreement ID: 845937

DOI

10.3030/845937

Project closed

EC signature date 29 April 2019

Start date 1 November 2020

End date 1 December 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 251 002,56

EU contribution

€ 251 002,56

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NINA (Norms in Nature: Rethinking the Natural Side of Normativity. Towards a New Hegelian Paradigm)

Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

What are norms? Where does their authority come from? Today, some of the most fraught debates in both analytic and continental philosophy pivot upon questions regarding the origin and status of “normativity”. NINA addresses a problem crucial to this context, namely the issue of natural normativity. It seeks to answer the following questions:
To what extent are norms natural?
Are there natural forms of normativity?
If so, how are they identified? And through what phenomena do they manifest?

So far, most theories have considered normativity a typically social phenomenon. Many scholars believe that norms are sui generis and belong to a “logical space” that cannot be grasped by the frameworks of the natural sciences. These same scholars find the very idea of natural normativity suspicious. However, their conceptual frameworks, which identify the social as the sole domain for norms, are vulnerable to an unresolvable dualism between norms and nature. Furthermore, the idea of a sharp distinction between these two dimensions is unable to explain the genesis of normative authority within communities.
This project therefore has two general objectives. It aims (1) to develop a new conception of norms in nature which present norms as naturally grounded by (2) rediscovering and reevaluating ideas drawn from classical German philosophy, particularly the philosopher G.W.F. Hegel—whose insights are already central to the debate on norms but whose ideas on natural normativity have not yet been fully appreciated.
The development of a non philosophically problematic philosophical conception of what norms are and what it means to think of humans as beings as both natural and norm-following creatures is the main goals of this project. This aim is relevant not only for developments in the domain of philosophy but will also provide a conceptual framework for all scholars concerned with normative phenomenon and the relations among natural and social dimensions. Achieving this objective requires finding a way to root norms in nature, making it essential to investigate developments in biology and, in particular, its theoretical paradigms that ground normativity in nature.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

NINA has developed along two axes.
(1) The first focuses on classical German philosophy and on Hegel in particular. This research aims at exploring Hegel's ideas concerning nature and his conception of the organic and its forms of normativity. For Hegel, the organic domain is where we find natural normativity. Following this Hegelian insight, the project’s working hypothesis is that the organic domain, and contemporary biological theories of organization in particular, remains the most promising arena for the conceptualization of forms of normativity grounded in nature. This is an underexplored area of thought, requiring significant research. This study has enabled (1.1) a historical reconstruction of the sources of Hegel's thought and his notion of organization (1.2) the positioning of Hegel’s thought in relation to biological debates and the historical advent of the notion of "organism” and "organization", and (1.3) the mapping of Hegelian ideas around natural normativity.

(2) The second line of inquiry focused on analysis of contemporary theories of organization. It involved (2.1) isolating their main conceptual tenets, (2.2) identifying how to normativity can be accounted for from an organizational perspective. Contemporary theories of organization originate from the issues in biological explanation and have sought to account for certain phenomena related to the living. They do not primarily aim to explain normative phenomena. However, such theorists themselves recognize that these theories have the potential to explain normativity. This part of the project, which is being conducted alongside philosophers of biology, aims to elaborate an organizational account of normativity and (2.3) connect it with the work done in part (1), showing how contemporary ideas about organization can shed new light on the tradition and vice versa. Finally, it has developed an account of how natural normativity gets to play a role in accounting for higher human forms of normativity.

NINA has thus reconstructed the Hegelian position on organisms and their normativity to assess its contemporary potential by putting it in dialogue with accounts prevalent in the philosophy of biology.
NINA communicated its results from the first research line to the academic community (philosophers, scholars, professor, students, etc.) as well as through other forms of outreach.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Project has helped enrich the debate on natural normativity and the relationship between normativity and the life sciences. It also helped illuminate some of Hegel's ideas about organization, teleology, and normativity, showing their relevance to today’s concerns (cf. list of publications).
The final phase of the project will has developed a theory of normativity related to biological organization and analyzed other Hegelian-inspired forms of natural normativity, related in particular to the underexplored notion of "character".

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