Pages: 89-100 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp22189100

The paper is devoted to conditions for the appearance of the first social norms (rules of behavior, including prescriptions and prohibitions) in the groups of early hominids, presumably by 3—2.5 million years ago. The author uses theoretical ideas about objective group concerns and the structures that support them, about normativity as a multi-component social phenomenon, about the ritual mechanism of attitudes formation, about interiorization, as well as modern ideas about the nature of life and social interactions of ancient hominids, based on the data of archeology and paleoclimatology. To explain the normativity, the classical scheme of the nomological explanation of  Carl Hempel is used. This approach has been expanded, since justification is required not only by an empirical hypothesis about the specific conditions for the occurrence of a phenomenon in a certain space and time, but also by the theoretical (“universal” in Hempel’s terms) hypothesis itself. It is shown that this approach opens opportunities for conducting a variety of studies with observations, field and computer experiments, as well as a methodological integration of already conducted studies of this kind, which are especially actively used in dealing with the origin of language problem.

Keywords: anthropogenesis, social norms, normativity, social interaction, nomological approach, Carl Hempel, theoretical hypothesis, empirical hypothesis

Information about author:

Nikolai Rozov (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Doctor of Philosophical Sciences. The Institute for Philosophy and Law, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Nikolaev St., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]