Christine Korsgaard has provided us with an illuminating analysis of the problem of the normativity of ethics. She observes that it is the reflective character of human consciousness that gives us the problem of the normative — the fact that unlike other animals, we can fix our attention on ourselves and become aware of our intentions, desires, beliefs, and attitudes, and of how they were formed. But it is not awareness alone that does it; a further aspect of our reflective consciousness is involved, which can appropriately be called freedom. Here is what she says:

The new data provided by reflection always face us, in other words, with a new decision.

The normative problem does not arise with regard to everything we observe about ourselves: we cannot decide whether or not to be mortal, for example (though we may have to decide how to feel about it). It is only beliefs, and acts, or intentions that face us with the problem of choice, and it is in our response to this problem that values and reasons reveal themselves.