First, when normative theorists claim that normative features are ingredient in the count-generation of speech acts, they do not thereby commit themselves to any claims about that in which these features consist. Strictly speaking, then, their view is compatible with these normative features being determined by anything from social stipulations to the commands of God. Nor do normative theorists commit themselves to any claims about the normative category to which these features belong. The normative theory, then, does not presuppose that these features are moral or should be understood as
...more
