The Ethics of Modernity: Formation and Transformation in Britain, France, Germany, and the USA: Legacies of Social Thought Series Richard Münch Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

The Ethics of Modernity

Formation and Transformation in Britain, France, Germany, and the USA

The Ethics of Modernity

Formation and Transformation in Britain, France, Germany, and the USA

Description

Based on intensive, long-term study, this comparative book traces the role of ethics in the formation of modernity in four Western nations (the US, Britain, France, and Germany). MYnchOs analysis spans several centuries of historical and political development. While ethics has played a clear role in the WestOs transition to modernity, he shows that its role has varied substantially and that it has influenced the development of each nationOs political and social institutions. The book begins with an assessment of the ethics of the West in contrast with the East. MYnch then looks at the formation of the ethics of modernity from ancient Judaism to ascetic Protestantism and modern secularized culture. The Ethics of Modernity builds a systematic reconstruction of the ethical formation of modernity in its different stages and variations, concluding with current globalization trends.

Chapter 1 Introduction: The Western Culture of Instrumental Activism
Part 2 Ethics and the World: A Comparative View
Chapter 3 Magic
Chapter 4 Archaic Religion
Chapter 5 Ethical Religion I: The Problem of Theodicy
Chapter 6 Ethical Religion II: The Path to Salvation
Chapter 7 Types of Relating Ethics to the World
Chapter 8 Structural Settings Shaping the Relationship between Ethics and World
Chapter 9 Different Patterns of Relating Ethics to the World within Western Culture: Britain, France, Germany, and America
Part 10 From Ancient Judaism to Ascetic Protestantism
Chapter 11 Introduction
Chapter 12 Ethical Penetration of the World: Ancient Judaism
Chapter 13 From Ethno-Religious Particularism to the Universal Church: The Teachings of Jesus Christ, the Pauline Mission, Early Catholicism, and the Gregorian Ecclesiastical Reforms
Chapter 14 From Traditionalistic Culture to Modern Culture: The Medieval City and Scholasticism
Chapter 15 The Last Attempt at Reconciling Ethics and the World: St Thomas Acquinas' Organic Social Ethics
Chapter 16 The Mutual Penetration of Religious Ethics and World: Ascetic Protestantism
Chapter 17 Modernization as Ethical Transformation
Part 18 Britain: Tradition and Reform
Chapter 19 Introduction
Chapter 20 The Position of Religion in Society: Orthodox Anglicanism and Heterodox Puritanism
Chapter 21 Agents of Modernization: Lawyers and Entrepreneurs in the Common Law Tradition
Chapter 22 Inclusion of Ethics in the Project of Modernization: Moderate Extension of Rights through Representation
Chapter 23 Social Change: The Interplay Between Tradition and Modernity
Part 24 France: Routine and Revolution
Chapter 25 Introduction
Chapter 26 The Position of Religion in Society: The Alliance between the Catholic Church and the Absolutist Rule
Chapter 27 Agents of Modernization: The Administrative Elite
Chapter 28 Inclusion of Ethics in the Project of Modernization: Radical Intellectual Criticism
Chapter 29 Social Change: The Cycle of Routine and Revolution
Part 30 Germany: Conformity and Alienation
Chapter 31 Introduction
Chapter 32 The Position of Religion in Society: The Alliance between Protestant Church and Secular Rule
Chapter 33 Agents of Modernization: The Cooperation of State and Industry
Chapter 34 Inclusion of Ethics in the Project of Modernization: The Gap between Ethics and World
Chapter 35 Social Change: Between Affirmation and Rejection
Part 36 America: Continuity and Renewal
Chapter 37 Introduction
Chapter 38 The Position of Religion in Society: The Sacred Covenant
Chapter 39 Agents of Modernization: Moral, Political, and Economic Entrepreneurs
Chapter 40 Inclusion of Ethics in the Project of Modernization: God's Envoys in the Wilderness
Chapter 41 Social Change: Continuity and Renewal
Part 42 Ethics and World: A Comparative Developmental History
Chapter 43 Introduction
Chapter 44 The Western Culture of Instrumental Activism in Comparative View
Chapter 45 From Ancient Judaism to the Reformation
Chapter 46 Modern Secularized Culture
Chapter 47 Differentiation of Cultural Traditions
Chapter 48 Concluding Remarks

Product details

Published	Dec 20 2000
Format	Paperback
Edition	1st
Extent	296
ISBN	9780847699216
Imprint	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Dimensions	228 x 148 mm
Series	Legacies of Social Thought Series
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

An important endeavor to provide a grand narrative of the trajectory of modernity, in the vein of the sociological master of us all, Weber. This book will be useful in courses looking for recent sociological ventures in comparative-historical analysis, especially if one is looking for an informed Weberian antidote to postmodern or even antimodern nihilism, or to a narrative that priviliges the economic or the political at the expense of the religio-cultural.

American Journal of Sociology
Richard Münch's comparative interpretation of the modern impulse in the prototypical Western nations is a remarkable intellectual product. It is an original and imaginative extension of the best of Max Weber's sociology. It is a beautiful appreciation of the simultaneity of the common impulse of the transformation to modernism and the different contexts into which this impulse was thrust. It is a work of high scholarship. But above all it is a book that is true. Münch gets it right in his interpretation of the Western experience, and has it right in his prediction of the continuity of the modernizing impulse into the globalizing world.

Neil J. Smelser, director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California