Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:49:51.311Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Moral Sense

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

James Q. Wilson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The central problem for social science is to explain social order. How do people manage to live together? One can discern two ways of answering that question. The first view is normative and communal: people learn from their culture customs that provide an internal compass guiding them to act in ways that minimize conflict and ensure comity. The second view is rationalistic and individualistic: order is created by explicit and implicit agreements entered into by self-seeking individuals to avert the worst consequences of their predatory instincts. In the first view, order is natural and prior to any social contract or government institution; in the second, it is contrived and dependent on agreements and sanctions. Rules are obeyed in the first case because they have moral force, in the second because they convey personal advantage. In the first view, compliance is automatic and general; in the second, it is strategic and uncertain.

The normative view has been under heavy attack for several decades for at least three reasons: it seems to imply a complacent functionalism; it appears to minimize or deny the value of conflict; and it lacks the theoretical power found in the assumption that people always seek their own interests. I believe that one can grant, up to a point, all of these objections and still be left dissatisfied with the alternative, namely, that social order is contrived, based on calculation, and dependent on individual assent.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 87 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, J. Stacy. 1963. “Toward an Understanding of Inequity.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67:422–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Adams, J. Stacy, and Jacobsen, P. R.. 1964. “Effects of Wage Inequities on Work Quality.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 69:19–25.Google Scholar
Adams, J. Stacy, and Rosenbaum, W. B.. 1962. “The Relationship of Worker Productivity to Cognitive Dissonance about Wage Inequities.” Journal of Applied Psychology 46:161–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, Richard D. 1987. The Biology of Moral System. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Anderson, Michael. 1980. Approaches to the History of the Western Family, 1500–1914. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aries, Phillipe. 1962. Centuries of Childhood. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Arnhart, Larry. 1990. “A Sociobiological Defense of Aristotle's Sexual Politics.” Presented to the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Bloom, Allan. 1978. “The Education of Democratic Man: Emile.” Daedalus 107:135–53.Google Scholar
Bohmann, Michael, and Sigvardsson, Soren. 1990. “Outcome in Adoption: Lessons from Longitudinal Studies.” In The Psychology of Adoption, ed. Brodzinsky, David M. and Schecter, Marshall D.. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cadoret, Remi. 1990. “Biologic Perspectives of Adoptee Adjustment.” In The Psychology of Adoption, ed. Brodzinsky, David M. and Schecter, Marshall D.. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cosmides, Leda, and Tooby, John. 1987. “From Evolution to Behavior: Evolutionary Psychology as the Missing Link.” In The Latest on the Best, ed. Dupré, John. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.Google Scholar
Daly, Martin, and Wilson, Margo. 1984. “A Sociobiological Analysis of Human Infanticide.” In Infanticide, ed. Hausfater, Glenn and Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Daly, Martin, and Wilson, Margo. 1987. “Children as Homicide Victims.” In Child Abuse and Neglect, ed. Gelles, Richard J. and Lancaster, Jane B.. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Daly, Martin, and Wilson, Margo. 1988. Homicide. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Damon, William. 1988. The Moral Child. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles. 1981. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
de Mause, Lloyd, ed. 1974. The History of Childhood. New York: Psychohistory.Google Scholar
Dickemann, Mildred. 1984. “Concepts and Classification in the Study of Human Infanticide.” In Infanticide, ed. Hausfater, Glenn and Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Divale, W. T., and Harris, M.. 1976. “Population, Warfare, and the Male Supremacist Complex.” American Anthropologist 78:521–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, Judy. 1988. The Beginnings of Social Understanding. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dunn, Judy, and Munn, Penny. 1986. “Siblings and the Development of Prosocial Behavior.” International Journal of Behavioral Development 9:265–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 1951. Suicide. Trans. Spaulding, J. A. and Simpson, George. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 1960. The Division of Labor. Trans. Simpson, George. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 1961. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Trans. Swain, J. W.. New York: Collier.Google Scholar
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenaus. 1989. Human Ethology. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1989. The Cement of Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, Tiffany. 1990. Infancy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fox, Robin. 1973. Encounter with Anthropology. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Garcia, John, and Koelling, Robert A.. 1966. “Relation of Cue to Consequence in Avoidance Learning.” Psychonomic Science 4:123–24.Google Scholar
Golding, William. 1962. Lord of the Flies. New York: Coward–McCann.Google Scholar
Haldane, J. B. S. 1955. “Population Genetics.” New Biology 18:34–51.Google Scholar
Hamilton, William D. 1964. “The Evolution of Social Behavior.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 7:1–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, Dale F., and Rheingold, Harriet L.. 1983. “The Early Appearance of Some Valued Social Behaviors.” In The Nature of Prosocial Development, ed. Bridgeman, Diane L.. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Herlihy, David. 1985. Medieval Households. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1957. Leviathan. Ed. Oakeshott, Michael. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hoopes, Janet L. 1982. Prediction in Child Development: A Longitudinal Study of Adoptive and Nonadoptive Families. New York: Child Welfare League of America.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1978. A Treatise of Human Nature. 2d ed. Ed. Selby-Bigge, L. A. and Nidditch, P. H.. Oxford. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hutcheson, Francis. 1742 [1969[. An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections with Illustrations on the Moral Sense. 3d ed. Reprint. Gainesville, FL: Scholars' Facsimilies and Reprints.Google Scholar
Konner, Melvin. 1982. The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Konner, Melvin. 1990. Why the Reckless Survive. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Konner, Melvin. 1991. Childhood. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Langan, Patrick. 1991. “America's Soaring Prison Population.” Science, p. 1572.Google Scholar
Langer, William L. 1974. “Infanticide: A Historical Survey.” History of Childhood Quarterly 1:353–66.Google ScholarPubMed
Latané, Bibb, and Darley, J. M.. 1970. The Unresponsive Bystander: Why Doesn't He Help? New York: Appleton–Crofts.Google Scholar
Lawler, E. E., and O'Gara, P. W.. 1967. “The Effects of Inequity Produced by Underpayment on Work Output, Work Quality, and Attitudes toward Work.” Journal of Applied Psychology 351:403–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenneberg, Eric H. 1972. “On Explaining Language.” In Biological Boundaries of Learning, ed. Seligman, Martin E. P. and Hager, Joanne L.. New York: Appleton–Century–Crofts.Google Scholar
LeVine, Robert. 1970. “Cross-Cultural Study in Child Psychology.” In Carmichael's Manual of Child Psychology, ed. Mussen, P. H.. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Locke, John. 1690/1979. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Nidditch, Peter H.. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lorenz, Konrad. 1943. “Die angeborenen Formen moglicher Erfahrung.” Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie 5:235–409.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Michael. 1982. Mystical Bedlam: Madness, Anxiety, and Healing in Seventeenth-Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Macfarlane, A. 1979. “Review.” History and Theory 18:103–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenna, James J. 1987. “Parental Supplements and Surrogates among Primates: Cross-Species and Cross-Cultural Comparisons.” In Parenting across the Life Span, ed. Lancaster, Jane B. et al. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N. 1988. “Imitation, Objects, Tools, and the Rudiments of Language in Human Ontogeny.” Human Evolution 3:45–64.Google Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N., and Moore, M. Keith. 1977. “Imitation of Facial and Manual Gestures by Human Neonates.” Science 198:75–78.Google Scholar
Mill, John Stuart. 1979. Utilitarianism. Ed. Sher, George. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Noonan, John T. 1965. Contraception. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha Craven. 1978. Aristotle's “De Motu Animalium.” Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ozment, Steven E. 1983. When Fathers Ruled: Family Life in Reformation Europe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Piaget, Jean. 1965. The Moral Judgment of the Child. Trans. Gabain, Marjorie. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Pollock, Linda A. 1983. Forgotten Children: Parent–Child Relations from 1500 to 1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rachman, S. J. 1990. Fear and Courage. 2d ed. New York: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Radke-Yarrow, Marian, Zahn-Waxler, Carolyn, and Chapman, Michael. 1983. “Children's Prosocial Dispositions and Behavior.” Handbook of Child Psychology 4:469–545.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rheingold, Harriet L., and Hay, Dale F.. 1978. “Prosocial Behavior of the Very Young.” In Morality as a Biological Phenomenon, ed. Stent, G. S.. Berlin: Dahlem Konferenzen.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard. 1989. Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1979. Emile. Trans. Bloom, Allan. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Sagi, A., and Hoffman, M. L.. 1976. “Empathic Distress in the Newborn.” Developmental Psychology 12:175–76.Google Scholar
Salkever, Stephen G. 1990. Finding the Mean: Theory and Practice in Aristotelian Political Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1987. “Culture, Scarcity, and Maternal Thinking: Mother Love and Child Death in Northeast Brazil.” In Child Survival, ed. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. Boston: Reidel/Kluwer.Google Scholar
Scrimshaw, Susan C. M. 1984. “Infanticide in Human Populations: Societal and Individual Concerns.” In Infanticide, ed. Hausfater, Glenn and Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Seligman, Martin E. P., and Hager, Joanne L.. 1972. Biological Boundaries of Learning. New York: Appleton–Century–Crofts.Google Scholar
Serpell, James. 1986. In the Company of Animals. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Ian. 1990. Political Criticism. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shorter, Edward. 1975. The Making of the Modern Family. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Shweder, Richard A., Turiel, Elliot, and Much, N. C.. 1981. “The Moral Intuitions of the Child.” In Social Cognitive Development, ed. Flavell, J. H. and Ross, L.. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sidgwick, Henry. 1981. The Methods of Ethics. 7th ed. Indianpolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. 1976. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Ed. Raphael, D. D. and Macfie, A. L.. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Smith, Dorothy W., and Sherwen, Laurie Nels. 1983. Mothers and Their Adopted Children: The Bonding Process. New York: Tiresias.Google Scholar
Sternglanz, Sarah Hall, Gray, James L., and Murakami, Melvin. 1977. “Adult Preferences for Infantile Facial Features: An Ethological Approach.” Animal Behavior 25:108–15.Google Scholar
Stone, Lawrence. 1977. The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England 1500–1800. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Super, Charles M. 1981. “Behavioral Development in Infancy.” In Handbook of Cross-Cultural Human Development, ed. Munroe, R. H., Munroe, R. L., and Whiting, B. B.. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Sussman, G. D. 1977. “The End of the Wet-nursing Business in France, 1874–1914.” Journal of Family History 2:.Google Scholar
Thomson, Judith Jarvis. 1989. “The No Reason Thesis.” Social Philosophy and Policy 7:1–21.Google Scholar
Trevathan, Wenda. 1987. Human Birth: An Evolutionary Perspective. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Triseliotis, John, and Hill, Malcolm. 1990. “Contrasting Adoption, Foster Care, and Residential Rearing.” In The Psychology of Adoption, ed. Brodzinsky, David M. and Schecter, Marshall D.. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trivers, Robert. 1971. “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism.” Quarterly Review of Biology 46:35–57.Google Scholar
Walster, Elaine, Walster, G. William, and Berschied, Ellen. 1978. Equity: Theory and Research. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.Google Scholar
Wilson, Margo, and Daly, Martin. 1987. “Risk of Maltreatment of Children Living with Stepparents.” In Child Abuse and Neglect, ed. Gelles, Richard J. and Lancaster, Jane B.. New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Wrightson, Keith. 1982. English Society, 1580–1680. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Zahn-Waxler, Carolyn, and Radke-Yarrow, Marian. 1982. “The Development of Altruism: Alternative Research Strategies.” In The Development of Prosocial Behavior, ed. Eisenberg, Nancy. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.