Dual Character Concepts: Bridging the Descriptive and the Normative

The recent discovery of so-called dual character concepts presents a new and formidable challenge for the neat distinction between the descriptive and the normative realm. Dual character concepts are unique in that they have two related but independent dimensions for categorization: one descriptive, one normative (Knobe et al. 2013, Leslie 2015, Reuter 2019). To illustrate their two-fold structure, take the example of an artist: On the one hand, we consider a person to be an artist, if certain descriptive features, such as painting pictures for a living, are met. On the other hand, we may also conceive of a person as an artist if she fulfils certain normative criteria that represent what most people believe an artist should be or should do, for instance, be committed to creating works of deep aesthetic value. The descriptive and normative dimensions of dual character concepts are independent of each other in the sense that a person can fulfil either of these two dimensions without satisfying the other. However, theoretical and empirical work (Knobe et al. 2013, Del Pinal & Reuter 2017, Reuter 2019) suggest that both dimensions are also related in important respects: not only is the normative content of dual character concepts in part shaped by their descriptive criteria, normative evaluations also influence the overall tendency to apply dual character concepts. One might initially think that dual character concepts are restricted to social role concepts like artist, or father, and artefact concepts, for instance, sports car, jazz music. However, some of the most fundamental philosophical concepts turn out to be dual character concepts, e.g., friend (Aristotle 350 BCE), self (Newman et al. 2014), happiness (Phillips et al. 2017), art (Liao et al. 202), belief (Buckwalter et al. 2015), theory and love (Knobe et al. 2013), and gender concepts like man, woman, boy, girl (Leslie 2015).

The study of dual character concepts reveals that large parts of our thinking are thoroughly permeated by normative considerations. Using an experimental-philosophical approach, we detail the content and the structure of dual character concepts as well as the interaction between the descriptive and normative dimension. A specific focus will be placed on the relation to other classes of concepts, such as thick concepts and natural kind concepts. This allows us to test existing theories of dual character concepts and develop a comprehensive account of this class of concepts. The existence of dual character concepts posits great challenges for philosophical theorizing, but also points to new ways in which we can advance our understanding of both the normative realm and people’s normative evaluations. Furthermore, dual character concepts present new possibilities for studying gender biases, generics, and social roles, and are thus highly relevant for the social sciences, the judicial sector, and politics.

Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Kevin Reuter
Accademic associates: Dr. Ethan Landes, Lucien Baumgartner