Andy asked:

I am interested in what 'norms' are. I have read Daniel Dennett's stuff quite closely and he seems to
me to say that norms are something like 'what we ought or would expect to find here' (say when doing
artefact hermeneutics). On the other hand the Oxford Companion to Philosophy entry for 'normative'
says 'standard or rule, principle used to judge or direct human conduct as something to be complied
with. Dennett seems to use the word in a special way - something like using previous knowledge or
context to judge what this unknown object is for or what this text really means. What do you think?

============

Dennett must mean something more by the notion of 'norms' than merely 'what we would expect to
find' or 'what we know from previous knowledge'. He is concerned with a special class of objects to
which what he terms the 'intentional stance' is appropriate. Objects of this kind exhibit goal
directedness of some sort or another.

A human being is goal directed, so is an ant, so is the humble thermostat. The essence of goal
directedness is the capacity to represent some aspect of the world, and the ability to respond
appropriately to what is so represented. Some goal directed objects are designed by human beings,
others (such as ourselves) are designed by evolution.

The interpretation of human behaviour is governed by norms of rationality. In order to be able to make
sense of a person's actions, it is necessary to assume that they are fairly rational, for example in the
way they form beliefs. In 'interpreting' the behaviour of an ant, we have to assume that the ant is
fulfilling its role in the ant colony. So one can speak of 'norms' of ant behaviour. But there is a 'norm'
too for thermostats. The thermostat has to respond appropriately to the changes in temperature which
it detects.

Language use gives a special meaning to the concept of normativity, I would argue, which is absent
when the concept is applied to non-language speaking animals and to artefacts. It is this richer sense
of normativity that the Oxford Companion article is talking about.