Beyond the altruism-egoism dichotomy: A new typology to capture morality as a complex phenomenon

Abstract

Traditionally, morality has been identified with altruism, and in sociological theory, altruism has been thought to promote solidarity. Morality, altruism, and social solidarity were bedrock issues in the genesis of sociology (Durkheim 1893), but, as a general trend, contemporary sociological analysis gives little attention to these broad, theoretical problems (Piliavin and Charng 1990). Consequently, the abandonment of these “great themes” has allowed other disciplines, such as biology, which includes genetics, zoology, and ethology, and evolutionary psychology to become the intellectual and scientific authorities in the public debate on morality, disregarding or even disdaining sociological and philosophical traditions (Batson 1991; Churchland 2011; Fox 1989; Hinde 2012; Krebs 2011; Tancredi 2005).