Meaning and Moral Order: Explorations in Cultural Analysis

The founders of sociology all recognized the importance of culture in social life. Emile Durkheim spent nearly fifteen years at the peak of his career investigating the beliefs and rituals of primitive religion in an effort to grasp the symbolic bases of moral community. Max Weber was concerned with problems of culture to an even greater extent. From the Protestant ethic thesis to contributions on rationalization and comparative religions, his work was prominently oriented toward the values and norms that regulate and legitimate social institutions. From a quite different perspective, Karl Marx dealt extensively with ideology and class consciousness, with religion and legitimation, and with the bases of social knowledge. Other contributors--Toennies, Troeltsch, Tocqueville, Spencer, to name a few--were also deeply concerned with the role of culture in society.

The legacy of the classical period has been, carried forward in the work of more recent sociologists and social scientists whose interests have also given special c ... read full excerpt from Meaning and Moral Order: Explorations in Cultural Analysis ebook