Toward an Integrated Science of Morality: Linking Mind, Society and Culture

Abstract

This chapter constructs a sociological mantle for morality and the mind by specifying broad theoretical traditions in the sociological literature on structure, culture, and interaction amenable to neuropsychological models of morality. Moral action does not take place in a vacuum; people are embedded in culture and social structure. We belong to families, groups, organizations, societies that shape and are shaped by our actions, thoughts and feelings. Research in sociology is well established to provide the essential links between human mind – extensively focused on within moral psychology – with society and culture. A comprehensive science of morality not only tests the neurological mechanisms involved in morality in artificial settings but is anchored in sociological understandings about how morality is shaped and activated in everyday human life.