Table of Contents

1. Norms and the Response to Norms

2. Life and Teleology

3. Building an Instrumentally Rational Agent

4. Social Animals and Non-Instrumental Norms

5. Distinctive Human Abilities: Practical Reason and Responding to Types

6. Language and the Ability to Criticize Norms

7. Warrant and Truth

About the Author

Mark Okrent is Professor of Philosophy at Bates College, USA. He is the author of two books, Heidegger’s Pragmatism: Understanding, Being, and the Critique of Metaphysics (1988) and Rational Animals: The Teleological Roots of Intentionality (2007). He has also published on a wide range of topics, including intentionality, teleology, Pragmatism, Heidegger, Davidson, Kant, and Hegel, among others.

Reviews

"Okrent provides a complex naturalistic account of norms and normative behavior. In contrast to the Kantian view that normative behavior demands an agent capable of rational representation of norms, Okrent's position is that the teleological explanations of the behavior of nonhuman organisms succeed without appeal to abstract representation on the part of the organism. Summing Up: Recommended." -- CHOICE