ABSTRACT
One of Steven Crowell’s most significant contributions to phenomenological philosophy consists in detailing the various ways in which the life of the mind is interwoven with our commitments and practices and the various norms to which they give rise. According to Crowell, intentionality itself should be understood in normative terms. In this chapter, I argue that while Crowell is most likely right that intentionality can only be realized in and by creatures who engage in practices and adhere to norms, intentionality itself is not intrinsically normative. More specifically, I appeal to Husserl’s conception of normative sciences to argue that not even knowledge is constitutively or intrinsically normative, and that epistemology is not a normative discipline.
