Modern Reading of the Sociology of Morality

The paper analyzes theoretical concepts and empirical tools for the study of morality, altruism, contributing to the development of ideas, beliefs and values about justice or its absence and trust or distrust in oneself, people around and social institutions. The relevance of studying this issue has become especially acute during a pandemic, when questions of morality and ethics have become urgent for many people in everyday space with the daily choice of their own behavior, the safety of themselves and others during and after a pandemic. These research focuses are studied within the framework of an interdisciplinary approach to the sociology of morality. It is shown that the moral dimension of social reality is a key marker of social reproduction. This position is proved by the appeal of contemporaries within the framework of sociology, psychology, philosophy to these topics, as well as the author’s own empirical research conducted in 2019–2020 by filling out diaries for six months (165 people), where moral emotions arising in any life were recorded situations, the methodology of Sh. Schwartz was used to identify the basic values (survey of research participants) and focus group conversations (54 people), which made it possible to identify the discrepancy between the declared values and situational reactions to various interactions mediated by moral emotions. The article traces the influence of social interaction, produced through the influence of social institutions that develop group norms, on the behavior of individuals in certain situations of interaction and group reactions in the process of communication and subsequent assessments of this process. It is proved how moral emotions either strengthen the existing functioning of social institutions or destroy it, eroding the clear framework of what is proper, acceptable, and correct. It also shows how and why situational factors influence norms and values more than general ideas about moral norms. The article may be of interest to philosophers, sociologists and specialists in helping professions for fixing and reflecting on moral states and transformations of the modern social environment.

Sociological Understanding of Professional and Institutional Ethics

The paper studies the issue of the importance of studying professional ethics with the help of theories and approaches of sociology of professions, sociology of morality and modern sociological theory. It raises the question of the ratio of individual moral standing to the requirements of professional ethics. The paper also outlines the key features of the conflicts arising in professional environment, such as in the situations provoking ethical dilemma conditioned by external institutional factors and the logic of managerialism. The authors focus on the ethical stress in the academia regarding the relationship between academic professionals and admini­strative staff. The paper raises the question of professional ethics in maturing communities, and describes the corporate volunteering practices. Prospects for studying professional ethics, including the need for empirical study of toxic moral choices in professional area and the manipulative risks of applying formal codes of ethics in order to gain power in professional environment, are outlined.

On the way to eliminating theoretical difficulties of sociology of morality

The article aims at presenting theoretical difficulties of sociology of morality and possible ways to overcome them. The importance of this issue is determined by the necessity of the scientific study of moral elements of the contemporary society in order to prevent its dehumanization. Sociology of morality focuses on the empirical study of various moral phenomena (justice, duty, conscience) in the social space. At the first stage of such a study, sociologists conduct observations and collect data, and at the second stage, they generalize moral facts to identify moral patterns. In sociology, morality is considered as an element of society; therefore, it is not analyzed by itself but within a system of social relations. One of the difficulties of such studies is the ambivalent nature of morality, i.e. its existence in both public and individual consciousness: if sociologists ignore the individual mode of morality, they misrepresent the content of moral facts. Another reason for theoretical difficulties in the study of morality is that sociologists use outdated ideas about the nature of moral truths and researchers impartiality - moral judgments are considered as not being true or false, and the researcher should ignore his value attitudes when collecting and analyzing data. The elimination of these difficulties can lead to the loss of the sociological research specifics and to the merger of sociology and moral philosophy. Representatives of the new sociology of morality have to reform this field but ensure its status of an independent scientific discipline. One of the ways to solve this task is to use ideas of analytic philosophy, in particular, of moral realism that defines moral qualities as qualities of real things, and moral truths as having the same status as scientific truths.

Durkheim and the New Sociology of Morality

Durkheim’s writings on morality are examined, distinguishing his earlier, more familiar account from later developments that advance new ideas relevant to present-day debates. The question is raised of the extent to which familiar criticisms of Durkheim’s sociology of morality are justified and ways are suggested in which sociologists and anthropologists can gain from reconsidering Durkheim on morality. His attempts to demarcate the scope of the sociology of morals against the claims of the philosophers and psychologists of his time are, it is argued, relevant to how sociologists of morality should view today’s philosophers and psychologists. Durkheim’s influence on current work by sociologists of morality is considered: positive influence, whether acknowledged or not, and negative, in response to what are seen as inadequacies of Durkheim’s approach. It is suggested that apparently non-Durkheimian studies of trust, collective action, and the evolution of social norms are nonetheless Durkheimian in their object of inquiry.

Theorizing Moral Cognition: Culture in Action, Situations, and Relationships

Dual-process theories of morality are approaches to moral cognition that stress the varying significance of emotion and deliberation in shaping judgments of action. Sociological research that builds on these ideas considers how cross-cultural variation alters judgments, with important consequences for what is and is not considered moral behavior. Yet lacking from these approaches is the notion that, depending on the situation and relationship, the same behavior by the same person can be considered more or less moral. The author reviews recent trends in sociological theorizing about morality and calls attention to the neglect of situational variations and social perceptions as mediating influences on judgment. She then analyzes the moral machine experiment to demonstrate how situations and relationships inform moral cognition. Finally, the author suggests that we can extend contemporary trends in the sociology of morality by connecting culture in thinking about action to culture in thinking about people.

Towards an integrative sociological theory of empathy

Sociological theories of morality have grown in prevalence over the last decade and a half. These theories often focus on developing single concepts such as identity, reputation or emotion, or they provide sweeping historical accounts. Such theories often also take the construct of empathy for granted, as an inevitable consequence of morality. Here, I present a mechanistic theory of empathy which operates at multiple levels of analysis. The approach offered can help frame particular topics in the sociology of morality, though it is also robust enough to analyse historical change. Specifically, the theory presented here is composed of sets of situational, structural and societal mechanisms. Each set is discussed, as well as their relation to one another, before turning to an explication of how the present theory relates to a selective sampling of prominent theories in the contemporary sociology of morality.