ABSTRACT
Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, legal theorists and philosophers unanimously share the idea that human practices are influenced by a system of norms, a normative regime or what has recently been called normativity. Normativity, or “oughtness,” is the set of norms to which an action should conform to be recognized legitimate and therefore to be effective within a group. This chapter treats: the meaning of norm and normativity; the origin and development of the term and of the constellation of terms associated with it, such as anomaly, anomie, normality and abnormality; the reflections on norms inside philosophy, sociology and history during the long nineteenth century; the scientific and ethical norms of practice of the disciplines related to intellectual history and sociology of knowledge.
