“I Love You,” “Don’t Worry About It”: A Theory of Non-Deontic Normative Powers

Patrick Quinn White (Harvard University)

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ABSTRACT

Normative powers are often assumed or defined to be abilities to change requirements by one’s say so. Promise and command generate duties (and so requirement); consent waives them. I argue that alongside such deontic powers, we enjoy a suite of non-deontic powers: abilities to shape non-requiring interpersonal norms by our say so. Suppose that we are meeting and we explicitly agreed to talk for an hour, but I see that the day is really getting away from you; it would be helpful to you to end early. My keeping you is permissible but still interpersonally defective—it’s rude, imposing, graceless, etc. You can change that by your say so; you could, for instance, tell me “don’t worry about it!” Your say so is not deontic consent as it did not change what was permissible; but it did make a normative difference, rendering my carrying on no longer graceless or rude. I defend a set of three atomic nondeontic powers that I call “allowance,” “assurance,” and “pressure” (analogues of consent, promise, and command). Molecular powers, most importantly the power exercised in telling another “I love you,” are built out of atomic ones. The upshot is a novel theory of ubiquitous, understudied normative phenomena and a picture on which the deontic and non-deontic dimensions of interpersonal life are continuous.