Human Culture(s) as Moral Order(s)

Abstract

The ideas of culture and action are central in sociology and social theory. This chapter argues that the most adequate approach to theorizing human culture must be a normative one that conceives of humans as moral, believing animals and human social life as consisting of moral orders that constitute and direct social action. Human actions are necessarily morally constituted and propelled practices. And human institutions are inevitably morally infused configurations of rules and resources. One of the central and fundamental motivations for human action is to act out and sustain moral order, which helps constitute, direct, and make significant human life itself. Human persons nearly universally live in social worlds that are thickly webbed with moral assumptions, beliefs, commitments, and obligations. This chapter also explores the long-standing false dichotomies of “culture” versus “society” in sociological theory. In its addendum, it tries to justify why are humans moral animals?