Is Logic Distinctively Normative?

Abstract

Logic is widely held to be a normative discipline. Various claims have been offered in support of this view, but they all revolve around the idea that logic is concerned with how one ought to reason. I argue that most of these claims—while perhaps correct—only entail that logic is normative in a way that many, if not all, intellectual disciplines are normative. I also identify some claims whose correctness would make logic normative in a way that sets it apart from (most) other disciplines. I argue that we have no reason think that these claims are correct. In other words, logic is not a distinctively normative discipline.