Editing Normativity (section)

{{short description|Relating to an evaluative standard}}
{{Redirect|Normative}}
{{Redirect|Prescriptive||Prescription (disambiguation)}}

'''Normativity''' is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A [[Norm (philosophy)|norm]] in this sense means a standard for evaluating or making judgments about behavior or outcomes. "Normative" is sometimes also used, somewhat confusingly, to mean relating to a descriptive standard: doing what is normally done or what most others are expected to do in practice. In this sense a norm is not evaluative, a basis for judging behavior or outcomes; it is simply a fact or observation about behavior or outcomes, without judgment. Many researchers in [[science]], [[law]], and [[philosophy]] try to restrict the use of the term "normative" to the evaluative sense and refer to the description of behavior and outcomes as positive, descriptive, predictive, or [[empirical]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Grammar of Society:The Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms|last=Bicchieri|first=Cristina|author-link=Cristina Bicchieri|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0521574907}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Norms in the Wild: How to Diagnose, Measure, and Change Social Norms|last=Bicchieri|first=Cristina|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2017|isbn=9780190622053}}</ref>

''Normative'' has specialized meanings in different academic disciplines such as [[philosophy]], [[social sciences]], and [[law]]. In most contexts, normative means 'relating to an evaluation or value judgment.' Normative propositions tend to evaluate some object or some course of action. Normative content differs from descriptive content.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Normativity|last=Jarvis|first=Thomson Judith|date=2008|publisher=Open Court|isbn=9780812696585|location=Chicago, Ill.|oclc=227918828}}</ref>