ABSTRACT
Morality was one of the central concerns of the founding generation of sociologists. The study of morality is made difficult precisely because of its self-evident nature. The goal is a “science of moral facts” in which people class moral facts as people class all other “natural things” in scientific examination. The sociology of religion emerged as a sub-specialization that attracted scholars interested in morality. The topic of morality is made still more difficult for intellectuals to take up by their typical unwillingness or inability to deal with the topic objectively and make the necessary effort to leave their own moral druthers on the sidelines. Ethics and morality are ways of structuring behavior, and behavior is the work of brains, so moral systems are entwined in brain processes. Human moral life has four basic pillars: Caring, the recognition of the psychological states of others, social problem-solving, and learning social practices.
