Abstract
Although a subfield called sociology of morality – of “moral phenomena,” more aptly – may seem a new departure for sociologists, the topic has in fact been central to sociological inquiry since its pre-disciplinary days.
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- 1.
Although Structure has often been thought to mark the starting point of Parsons’s publishing career, it actually followed a substantial series of significant published papers (Camic ed. 1997).
- 2.
As must not be forgotten, the ways that Parsons used the concepts of positivism (and utilitarianism) reflect historical misunderstandings that have produced confusions based on semantic conflations. The term positivism, as Comte and is followers have defined it, designates only a methodological principle, not a particular view of human action (and indeed, Comte’s view of motivation included the elements of valuation, sentiment, and altruism–another term he coined–as well as instrumental rationality). See Levine (1980:xii–xv).
- 3.
The epigraph to this volume consists of a quotation from Max Weber: “Jede denkende Besinnung auf die letzten Elemente sinnvollen menschlichen Handelns ist zunächst gebunden an die Kategorien ‘Zweck’ und ‘Mittel’” (Any thoughtful reflection on the ultimate elements of meaningful human action is initially bound to the categories of “ends” and “means.”)
- 4.
Since some readers may be inclined to dismiss this exposition on grounds that employs the notion of societal evolution is necessarily suspect if not illegitimate, the author emphasizes the importance of those revisions. In making them, Parsons was aided substantially by a seminal paper of Robert Bellah, “Religious Evolution” (1964) – and in fleshing out his evolving conception, by the assistance of Victor Lidz. Bellah’s forthcoming volume on Religious Evolution will provide the most comprehensive realization of this conception to date.
- 5.
- 6.
For a translation of its Table of Contents, see Appendix.
- 7.
For an important pioneering treatise in this vein, see Patterson (1991).
- 8.
The first English translation of this work is to be published by the University of Chicago Press in Autumn 2010.
- 9.
Late in the sense that it was the last of Simmel’s original treatments of forms of association, and reprinted in his 1917 reprise of the sociological enterprise.
- 10.
Besides Merton, who acknowledged his deep indebtedness to Simmel, one may include work by two of his prominent students, Coser (1956) and Caplow (1968). For a full account of Simmel’s influence, see Levine et al. (1976).
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Levine, D.N. (2010). Adumbrations of a Sociology of Morality in the Work of Parsons, Simmel, and Merton. 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_4
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