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Morality and Civil Society

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Handbook of the Sociology of Morality, Volume 2

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Morality is central to the theories and practices of civil society but remains a controversial point for critics who question the boundary between the normative and the empirical. In this chapter, I argue that the sociology of morality can serve as descriptive ethics to provide empirical ground for dialogs between sociology and philosophy. This chapter first briefly reviews the main themes related to morality in civil society theories, primarily civic virtue and the common good and then discusses how the sociology of morality informs or could inform theoretical debates from an empirical perspective.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Another type of critique, albeit less influential, comes from the opposite direction, communitarian social philosophy. For example, Amitai Etzioni (1996) argues that civil society, or what he terms “civic society,” defines social order only in terms of procedures and intermediary institutions, limited to political arena, and devoid of substantive values. Thus, the civil society concept is unable to provide a better understanding of human societies as moral communities.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Bin Xu

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  1. Bin Xu
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Correspondence to Bin Xu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology & Criminology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Steven Hitlin

  2. Department of Sociology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Shai M. Dromi

  3. Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Aliza Luft

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Xu, B. (2023). Morality and Civil Society. In: Hitlin, S., Dromi, S.M., Luft, A. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Morality, Volume 2 . Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32022-4_30

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