ABSTRACT
From the genial precursor of sociology, Adam Smith, and it's official baptizer, Auguste Comte, to virtually all the movers and shakers of the subject, sociologists have pursued a wide array of questions regarding the forms, contents, genesis, functions, and changes of moral phenomena. Although a subfield called sociology of morality—of "moral phenomena," more aptly—may seem a new departure for sociologists the topic has in fact been central to sociological inquiry since its pre-disciplinary days. Indeed, ideas about morality changed so much in the course of their respective careers that one can only get a fair grasp of what they thought by tracing the evolution of their ideas. Both Georg Simmel and Talcott Parsons had productive careers in which the topos of morality stood out frequently. Although Robert Merton may be the only student of Parsons for whom Simmel offered a cornucopia of seminal ideas, his forays into the sociology of morality were stimulated initially more by Durkheim than anyone else.
