Abstract
Situated normativity is the ability of skilled individuals to distinguish better from worse, adequate from inadequate, appropriate from inappropriate, or correct from incorrect in the context of a particular situation. Situated normativity consists in a situated appreciation expressed in normative behaviour, and can be experienced as a bodily affective tension that motivates a skilled individual to act on particular possibilities for action offered by a concrete situation. The concept of situated normativity has so far primarily been discussed in the context of skilled unreflective action. In this paper, we aim to explore and sketch the role of the concept of situated normativity in characterising more reflective forms of normativity. The goal of the paper is two-fold: first, by showing more reflective forms of normativity to be continuous with unreflective situated normativity, we bring these reflective forms into the reach of embodied accounts of cognition; and second, by extending the concept of situated normativity, new light is thrown on questions regarding reflective forms of cognition. We show that sociomaterial aspects of situations are crucial for understanding more reflective forms of normativity. We also shed light on the important question of how explicit rules can compel people to behave in particular ways.
Highlights
Situated normativity is the ability of skilled individuals to distinguish better from worse, adequate from inadequate, appropriate from inappropriate, or correct from incorrect in the context of a particular situation
Situated normativity consists in a situated appreciation expressed in normative behaviour, and can be experienced as a bodily affective tension that motivates a skilled individual to act on particular possibilities for action offered by a concrete situation
We explored the reach of the concept of situated normativity, i.e. distinguishing between better and worse in the context of a particular situation
Summary
Central to concept of situated normativity is that normativity is expressed in engagement with the world as intelligent behaviour that has an important affective dimension. The teacher can either do this by showing what should be done in a particular situation, or by gestures or other non-verbal expressions of appreciation (e.g. facial gestures) or verbal means—and a combination of these For this kind of teaching the teacher need not be able to formulate explicit rules, nor needs she be reflectively aware of the regular patterns of behaviour that constitute the practice. A distinction can be made between the different levels of articulation in social attunement, the performance of the skills learned is similar in that the appreciation of the skilled individual in a particular context does not require an awareness or representation of a rule, but instead a state of lived situated normativity, which is expressed in an action that reduces the felt affective tension and at the same time improves grip. There are differences between the different levels of articulations, to which we will return
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
