Norm Conflicts and Rationality

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Niels Skovgaard-Olsen
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 497332489

In a recent fundamental debate about rationality research, it has been argued that the problem of arbitrating between several conflicting norms poses a severe methodological stumbling block for the application of norms in empirical research. In this project, a new experimental approach is taken to this problem by establishing individual profiles of the participants based on their case judgments and reflective attitudes. The idea is to commit participants to one of several opposing norms and make rationality assessments relative to the profile the participants have been classified under. The goal of the project is to prove the generality of this approach by investigating a range of domains in higher cognition. In particular, participants’ norm adherence in the domains of norms of assertion, decision theory, moral and causal judgments are to be investigated on this basis. The plan is in short to put ordinary subjects as normative agents on the agenda to address the question of which norms they themselves recognize and impose on their peers in argumentative contexts. The aim is to show through a series of case studies how fruitful empirical work can be conducted on this basis. Far too often, psychological studies involving norms have been set up with one particular norm in mind to either prove that participants are rational or irrational. When it is pointed out that there exist other competing norms in philosophy that the participants’ responses could be reconstructed according to, research is faced with the ambiguity of which norms to apply to interpret participants’ behaviour. The project aims to show how it is possible to fruitfully conduct empirical research at the interface between philosophy and cognitive psychology by developing experiments that from the outset are designed to study norm conflicts and investigating which norms participants themselves adhere to.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants