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Back to the Future

Reviving the Sociology of Morality

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Handbook of the Sociology of Morality

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

Abstract

If we could travel back in time and speak with Emile Durkheim or Max Weber, they might be puzzled by this handbook, with its goal to renew “the sociology of morality.” “Can there be,” we imagine them asking, “a sociology that is not a sociology of morality?” Durkheim, after all, once claimed that [i]f there is one fact that history has irrefutably demonstrated, it is that the morality of each people is directly related to the social structure of the people practicing it…The connection is so intimate that, given the general character of the morality observed in a given society … one can infer the nature of that society, the elements of its structure and the way it is organized (1961 [1925]:87)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Weber, by contrast, was “in general positive toward psychology and interested in its findings” and regarded “psychophysical” characteristics as potential elements of which “account must be taken” even though they were not the focus of sociological inquiry per se (Swedberg 2005:217).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Steven Hitlin

  2. Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Stephen Vaisey

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  1. Steven Hitlin
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  2. Stephen Vaisey
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Correspondence to Steven Hitlin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Sociology, University of Iowa, Seashore Hall W. 124, Iowa City, 52242-1401, Iowa, USA

    Steven Hitlin

  2. , Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, Barrows Hall #1980 410, Berkeley, 94720, USA

    Stephen Vaisey

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Hitlin, S., Vaisey, S. (2010). Back to the Future. In: Hitlin, S., Vaisey, S. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Morality. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6896-8_1

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