The Concept of Moral Conscience in the Sociological Tradition

• Main Author: Andrey V. Bykov
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology 2017-09-01
• Series: Социологический журнал
• Online Access: http://jour.fnisc.ru/upload/journals/1/articles/5362/submission/proof/5362-61-10690-1-10-20180329.pdf

In this article the author presents a historical and theoretical analysis of the concept of moral conscience in the sociological tradition, as well as analysis of the most important approaches to studying moral conscience in modern social and cognitive psychology. The crucial classical sociological concepts of moral conscience by Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim are analyzed in a comparative perspective as examples of utilitarian and social realist solutions to the problem of social order. In addition, the author discusses some more recent approaches to studying moral conscience that are related to the social psychological tradition, which is heavily based on classical studies of moral development by L. Kohlberg. It is shown that, despite its inherent shortcomings and limitations, Kohlberg’s theory formed the methodological basis for contemporary moral psychology, which in itself is a distinct field which studies the mechanisms of making moral judgments and evaluations. The predominant approach in the interdisciplinary science of morality, which would be experiments aimed at examining singular moral judgments, is criticized based on the distinction between “thin” and “thick” morality proposed by G. Abend. Also considered are some modern attempts to rekindle interest in studying morale and moral conscience within sociological theory, as well as the so called “sociology of morality”, said attempts being of both descriptive and prescriptive nature. In conclusion the author discusses the possibility for further elaborating the category of moral conscience in sociological theory and research.