• Corpus ID: 11917958

The Prescriptive Destiny of Predictive Attitudes: From Expectations to Norms via Conventions

@inproceedings{Castelfranchi2003ThePD,
  title={The Prescriptive Destiny of Predictive Attitudes: From Expectations to Norms via Conventions},
  author={Cristiano Castelfranchi and Francesca Giardini and Emiliano Lorini and Luca Tummolini},
  year={2003}
}

• C. Castelfranchi, F. Giardini, +1 author Luca Tummolini
• Published 2003
• Philosophy

The goal of this paper is to show the normative component of a convention adopted by a population of cognitive agents. To address this aim we will defend two distinct thesis. The former is that even simple predictions developed to anticipate future state of affairs have an intrinsic tendency to evolve in full expectations and then in prescriptions. We consider this as a multilevel phenomenon occurring either at the individual psychological level or at the interpersonal one or, finally, at the collective macro social level. The latter thesis is that we consider this tendency as one of the possible paths of the spontaneous emergence of agents’ commitments, of conventions and likely of real social norms: the tacit emergence of a prescriptive character and, then, of obligations and duties. We will examine the constitutive elements –both cognitive and relational – of this process of spontaneous transition from the predictive attitudes to the prescriptive ones and, on this basis, to real normative attitudes. Finally, we will discuss the inevitably normative component of conventions as traditionally described (Lewis 1969). We will argue that this fundamental process is notably left implicit or insufficiently explained.