Durkheim’s framework equates morality with social origin, leaving only animal drives as alternative

Evidence

In various receptions of Durkheim and elaborations of Durheim’s themes, it has been widely accepted that the paradigm of ‘social production of morality’ does not apply just to the Society writ large, i.e. one that connotes the fully equipped nation-state society. Inside such ‘grand society’, the presence of more than one authoritative moral systems is acknowledged; some of them may even go against the grain of the moral system promoted by the institutions of the ‘grand society’. For our problem, however, the relevant point is not the moral monism or pluralism or the ‘grand society’, but the fact that within Durkheim’s perspective any morally binding norm, however minuscule in its application, must have a social origin and be enforced by socially operated coercive sanctions. Inside this perspective, immorality is always, by definition, anti-social (or, conversely, a-sociality is by definition a-moral); indeed, Durkheim’s language does not allow for the articulation of other than social origin of moral behaviour. The alternative to socially-regulated conduct is one caused by non-human, animal drives. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 873

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures the key Durkheimian move: morality = social, and the only alternative is animalistic a-social drive — a crucial premise for Bauman’s argument that mass murder’s bureaucratic form escapes moral categories.
• XREF: Connects directly to the Foundations Module toolkit on how social theory constructs moral personhood — relevant to later Islamophobia readings on how state power redefines moral obligations to the excluded. — connects to: Durkheim reduces all morality to the single need for social integration — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 484; Durkheim’s sociology holds that all morality originates in society’s coercive civilizing force — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 486; Morality precedes society and society merely manipulates an already-existing moral structure — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 514 (+4 more)

Related

• Durkheim’s sociology holds that all morality originates in society’s coercive civilizing force (similarity 0.93)
• Durkheim reduces all morality to the single need for social integration (similarity 0.90)
• Sociology treats social learning as the unexamined root of all human morality (similarity 0.83)
• Orthodox sociology assumes social regulation produces morality and restrains savagery (similarity 0.82)
• Modern societal organization can weaken moral drives and make immorality more plausible (similarity 0.82)
• Socialization manipulates but never produces moral capacity (similarity 0.82)
• Social organization displaces autonomous moral drive with instrumental and procedural rationality (similarity 0.81)
• Morality precedes society and society merely manipulates an already-existing moral structure (similarity 0.81)
• Moral violations get theorized as production failures within a factory metaphor of society (similarity 0.80)
• Sociology reduces morality to derivative products of non-moral social institutions (similarity 0.79)
• Moral capacity arises socially but not from societal institutions (similarity 0.79)
• Moral responsibility can compel insubordination to socially upheld principles (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Durkheim reduces all morality to the single need for social integration #expands (0.95) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 484
• Durkheim’s sociology holds that all morality originates in society’s coercive civilizing force #expands (0.90) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 486
• Morality precedes society and society merely manipulates an already-existing moral structure #contradicts (0.90) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 514
• Moral capacity arises socially but not from societal institutions #complicates (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 499
• Orthodox sociology assumes social regulation produces morality and restrains savagery #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 47
• Moral obligations derive from objective ideality, not from society or individual will #contradicts (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 356
• Sociology reduces morality to derivative products of non-moral social institutions #expands (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 481