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Event One
The ontogeny of normativity: Novel theoretical perspectives
Guest Editors
Markus Paulus, Annette Henderson, Annie Riggs, Jedediah Allen, Richard Holton
Background
Humans live in a normatively saturated world. Our behavior is guided in ways that not only constrain our space of actions, but provide us also with institutionalized forms of knowledge that help us to deal with challenges posed by the social and natural world. The appreciation of the variety of social norms describes central aspects of human development (e.g., norms of how peacefully play with others, norms of how to behave in a restaurant, norms of how resolve disagreements). That is, norms guide, structure, and prescribe how we are supposed to treat each other in a morally justifiable way, regulate our interactions in terms of how to dress, what and how to eat, how to approach each other in different contexts, and how to handle objects. People who violate one or the other of these norms would not only be unable to reach their goal – they would receive signs of disapproval from their social environment, indicating a normative expectation. It has therefore been proposed that “this is our specific human kind of niche – a normative niche.“ (Peregrin, 2021, p. 28). It is thereby a central aspect that humans not only learn to follow regularities as other animals do, but also represent norms and have explicit normative stances. The claim that an appreciation of norms is potentially unique to human forms of living has sparked a debate on whether humans should best be described as “the normative animal” (Roughley & Bayertz, 2019) and the human mind as being a “normative mind” (Stelmach et al., 2016). Indeed, while we can observe that, for example, cats display regularities in their behavior (e.g., expect to get fed every morning), it is questionable whether they also hold each other or their owner responsible for their actions, for example by expressing normative judgments on what the other should have done. Humans, however, hold each other responsible and express normative views from a young age on (Essler et al., 2023; Schmidt et al., 2019).
While the development of normative stances in early to middle childhood has been intensely studied, less is known about the early ontogeny of normativity from its emergence in infancy or toddlerhood across the first years of life. Specifically, little is known on when and how normative stances emerge in human ontogeny, on which type of precursors normative stances build, in which contexts are they first displayed, how their content and expression changes over early development (e.g., across different contexts or domains), and how they can be appropriately investigated. Despite an increased interest in this topic, there is little clarity on key concepts (e.g., how to understand early normativity), illuminating theoretical perspectives, and suitable empirical approaches in the field that is hampering scientific progress.
Aim
The aim of this special issue of Cognitive Development is to present new theoretical perspectives on the ontogeny of normativity in infancy and toddlerhood. The special issue invites contributions from a range of research areas and disciplines (e.g., psychology, philosophy) that explore how humans develop as normative agents. While the editors primarily seek theoretical contributions, they will also consider empirical papers offering a significant and original theoretical insight.
Submissions
We expect to have 10-14 manuscripts, including both theoretical and empirical papers offering theoretical insight. Interested contributors should submit a Letter of Intent to Markus Paulus (markus.paulus@lmu.de) by September 16th, 2025. The Letter of Intent is supposed to include the following parts: (1) a tentative title, (2) names and affiliations of authors, (3) an abstract of the proposed manuscript (500 words), and on a new page (4) a short explanation of its theoretical impact. After receiving all letters, potential contributors will be invited by October 15th, 2025 to submit full manuscripts for peer review until 31st March 2026 to Cognitive Development. The revision cycles are expected be completed on the 15th December 2026.