BOOK REVIEW: Morality and Socially Constructed Norms by Laura Valentini

INTRODUCTION

Published by Oxford University Press in 2024, “Morality and Socially Constructed Norms” is a remarkable work that addresses striking and thought-provoking questions about social norms, normativity, and moral philosophy.

The author of the book that is our subject of the book review, Ms. Laura Valentini, is an Italian professor who has won awards many times despite being a very young woman. The author, who previously worked at Harvard, Oxford, Princeton, Kings College universities for academic purposes, has brought all of her knowledge and experience together in this work, which is her latest book. Her work covers topics of contemporary political, legal, and moral philosophy. She completed his postgraduate studies in the field of Political Philosophy and Political Theory at University College London. The author’s analytical evaluations in her works, the multifaceted relationships she establishes between law, norm, philosophy and morality are remarkable.

Two or three years before the book was written, a global pandemic was declared that gripped the entire world, workplaces switched to a remote working system, curfews were declared, vaccination norms were established, flight restrictions were imposed on those who were not vaccinated, and public transportation was prevented. Although our author does not explicitly address this situation in his book, I can say the following from a lawyer’s perspective: It is extremely remarkable that this work was written after a period of time when we can clearly see that our lives are regulated by norms that cannot be regulated by law (cannot be legalized) but are determined by society. Also, the fact that such a work was produced recently, very shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, which addressed the issue of moral status of socially constructed norms, may have been written to demonstrate that the author can reconcile current developments with political thoughts and philosophy.

The main purpose of the book is to explain, with concepts specific to Valentini, when socially constructed norms become morally normative, in other words, have a binding effect on us, what the conditions are, and how they work.

The author basically explains how and why socially constructed norms create moral obligations with a theory / approach that she frames as “The Agency-Respect View”.

SUMMARY

The fundamental question of the book is when and how do socially constructed norms become morally normative. Addressing this fundamental question with various arguments, the author explains in the first chapters of the book what socially constructed norms are, what types they include, and whether they are morally binding. The author frequently refers to socially constructed norms throughout the book. These norms are not regulated by law or legal basis. On the contrary, they are constructed over a long period of time with all elements of social life. In fact, the author Valentini connects this situation to the “Agency-Respect View” thesis with the statement “The explanation is, simply, that respecting the norms is necessary to respect their supporters’ authentic commitments.” (Valentini 2024, 10) Then, she puts forward, in my opinion, the most original argument of the book, and perhaps a new voice in the field: “The Agency-Respect View”. The Agency-Respect View can be explained in the simplest and most plain way as follows: It states that we must comply with the norms that people in society truly believe in, are committed to, comply with, and are harmless in order to show respect to those who abide by these rules. In the following sections, she focuses on the concept of rights. Author Valentini has categorized rights in this context in one way. According to author Valentini, there are two types of rights in this context: i) Rights as inviolability: Fundamental and universal rights that people have innately (the right to life can be cited as an example) ii) Rights as control: Rights that give people the authority to impose responsibilities or duties on other people or to remove their responsibilities, and can even be described as being shaped by socially constructed norms within the scope of the book. While the rights I have titled with number (i) are directly based on moral foundations, the ones I have titled with number (ii) are based on social acceptance and the agency-respect principle that the author frequently refers to. She explains what rights are and how they can be categorized. Then, she examines the political obligation dimension of the issue. Finally, she presents an assessment of whether the violation of sovereignty always creates a negative situation.

It is not possible to say that the author relies on empirical data in the book. Rather than empirical data, the author uses examples from daily life, evaluations of various thinkers, theoretical evaluations, and scenarios about daily life created by herself in accordance with analytical political and moral philosophy approaches. These examples are sometimes presented as not tipping the waiter, and sometimes as not getting in line for the bus. Additionally, references are made throughout the book to the ideas of important figures such as John Rawls, G. Dworkin, T. M. Scanlon, and Philip Pettit, as well as P. F. Strawson’s concept of “reactive attitudes”. (Strawson, 2008)

ANALYSIS

As I mentioned above, instead of empirical data, the author Valentini has constructed her arguments throughout the book using conceptual analysis and reflective equilibrium methods. This methodological method does not present direct statistical, experimentally supported, or empirical data while explaining the arguments. In short, it aims to show how much the arguments presented throughout the book are parallel to our moral evaluations/intuitions, and our life experiences.

Since the book offers a multifaceted and comprehensive assessment, many different key concepts are included in the book. The most prominent of these can be listed as socially constructed norms, agency respect principle & agency-respect view, agential-investment account, normativity, right, pro tanto, moral force.

At this point, considering the limits of the study, it would be appropriate to briefly mention the aforementioned basic concepts in order to convey the framework of the basic concepts on which the work presented as a book by Valentini is based.

Socially constructed norms, as a concept frequently found in the book, are the behavioral patterns/rules that individuals accepted as individuals of the society internalize publicly and expect others to do among themselves. Another concept associated with socially constructed norms agency respect principle or agency-respect view, on the other hand, explains that we should continue our social life by respecting the norms depicted as socially constructed and the commitments that others sincerely adopt to comply with. In this context, agential-investment account does not consider it sufficient for a socially constructed norm to come to life for the society to only comply with it. In addition, it sees belief and commitment to this norm as a necessity. Normativity is another concept that is also given importance in the book. It is the binding power and weight that determines/indicates that a norm should be done morally. The concept of right is also given importance in the book. The concept of right refers to the authority of individuals, societies or groups to demand stereotyped behaviors or acquired actions. Another concept that I had not encountered before in the book but that caught my attention was pro tanto obligation. This concept, which is extremely difficult to grasp and understand, refers to things that can be invalidated with different moral justifications, but these are primarily but in a way not definite types of moral responsibility. Moral force can be defined as the pressure of the commitment that must be shown to a norm.

As I mentioned above, the author frequently refers to situations we encounter in daily life rather than experimental data in order to properly convey his thesis and arguments. These examples, unlike a survey or public opinion poll, bring to mind situations we may encounter in a restaurant, on the highway or at a bus stop. In this context, the author presents situations such as crossing when red light, tipping to waiters norms in restaurants, driving on the left. These examples create an easily understandable aspect even for readers who do not have any theoretical or philosophical background.

EVALUATION

It is possible to say that the text is quite successful in terms of clarity, as it presents examples related to traffic, restaurant courtesies, tips, and waiting in line on the bus, which we frequently encounter in our daily lives, rather than examples containing words that are difficult to understand, intricate, complex, have theoretical foundations, and imported from different foreign languages. Although the author tries to strengthen her thesis with different concepts and different sections throughout the book, She does not fall into a fundamental contradiction. As it should be, she has made evaluations throughout the text, remaining faithful to her first thought, and has conveyed her thesis masterfully. As for the originality of the text, it is possible to appreciate the author once again, because the author uses many concepts that she has constructed with her own thoughts in a complete and accurate style while founding her thesis. This is one of the most concrete examples of this situation. Although the author presents her own thesis to the reader with her own concepts throughout the book, she does not neglect to refer to important names in the fields of political philosophy and political theory. In this context, it would be appropriate to say that the work should be appreciated in terms of originality, clarity and authenticity.

The book that is the subject of our review was published only a few years ago and is a very new book. Therefore, it can be said that it is too early to evaluate what kind of an impact the book will have on the academic field in which it is located or the impact it has had so far, compared to cult works. However, the interdisciplinary approach that the author puts forward throughout the book, the comprehensive perspective that brings together different disciplines, and the original evaluations she puts forward regarding norms and moral bindings bring to mind the idea that the work will continue to be highly sought after in the near future. In my opinion, the fact that this book is given as a review assignment for graduate students is another detail that shows how valuable it is.

Sure, her theory is pretty remarkable and significant within political philosophy. Also, it is possible to note that, the book and its approaches are relevant in pluralist and democratic societies. The validity of the book can only be understood in the long run by consistently presenting antitheses and objections to the ideas presented in the book. In this sense, although I find many of the ideas expressed in the book extremely abstract and ambiguous, I cannot find the courage to put forward a claim regarding the invalidity of the book.

CONCLUSION

Valentini argues that a satisfactory explanation will have two aspects, as she explains in detail in her book. i) Explanatory Power, ii) Fit with evidence. In this context, L. Valentini covers the concept of norm in a broad manner throughout the book, what socially constructed norms can be, how they come into being, the moral force aspects of socially constructed norms, the moral normativity of such norms, how moral normativity is formed, what rights should be mentioned in this sense, and how violations of sovereignty should be evaluated in all their details. While starting from these basic points, the author has derived a term that can be considered as an original approach to herself: “The Agency-Respect Principle”. As we have presented in detail above, the author states that it should be accepted as a moral obligation to respect the original/authentic/internalized and morally non-violating legitimate commitments, acceptances and bases of the individuals who constitute the society. This situation also forms the basis for the author to explain why we should comply with the norms that he describes as socially constructed norms throughout the book.

As a lawyer, in my opinion, the part of the book that could have potential impact is the author’s explanation of how our responsibilities that are not legalized, not based on any law, do not include a penalty, and do not have a transformative penal effect on human life also bind us. Because, when we consider the sociology of crime, we come across groups that have difficulty in socially adapting even in situations that are legalized and sanctioned with prison sentences, from corruption to murder. In this respect, it was remarkable to think about why and how we adapt to social norms in situations that are not legalized and sanctioned with prison sentences.

Semih TEMİZER

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References:

Valentini, L. (2024). Morality and socially constructed norms. Oxford University Press

Valentini, L. (n.d.). CV. Retrieved April 12, 2025, from https://www.lauravalentini.net/cv

Strawson, P. F. (2008). Freedom and resentment. In Freedom and resentment and other essays (pp. 1–28). Routledge.