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Sociology as the Study of Morality

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Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory

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

Abstract

This article reviews the substantive empirical and theoretical research programs and disputes within the sociology of morality. Specifically, research is reviewed in the areas of moral emotions, reputations and identities, at the social psychological level, and in the areas of political economy, religion and values at the cultural level. In addition, three areas of theoretical controversy are discussed—contentions over the primacy of culture over structure, over the primacy of subliminal versus reflective displays of moral behavior and over the ontological, metatheoretical nature of morality itself. The article ends with a proposed general, interdisciplinary, and integrative theoretical framework for the study of morality in sociology.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Abend (2011) for a review of the relevant arguments against viewing artificially/philosophically constructed moral judgements as entirely, sufficiently, constitutive of morality.

  2. 2.

    Elsewhere, Haidt has flirted with adding additional moral foundations to his list. Here I discuss only his original “foundations”.

  3. 3.

    I am defining wellbeing in a psychological and social sense—wellbeing involves cognition that is not overly taxed with stress and fear, and it also involves the networks, opportunities and resources (power, respect, influence, capital) people need to pursue valued cultural goals.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Indiana-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, IN, USA

    Kevin McCaffree

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  1. Kevin McCaffree
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Correspondence to Kevin McCaffree .

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  1. Department of Sociology, The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

    Seth Abrutyn

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McCaffree, K. (2016). Sociology as the Study of Morality. In: Abrutyn, S. (eds) Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32250-6_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32250-6_21

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