Morality and Personal Experience

The Moral Conceptions of a Muscovite Man

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2277463
AutoresJarrett Zigon (0000-0002-8039-5043, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, autor de correspondencia)
Año2009
Volumen37
Número1
Páginas78-101
Fecha de publicación2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEthos (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0091-2131 • E-ISSN: 1548-1352
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-1352.2009.01032.x
OpenAlexW2012291104
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas31
Referencias citadas32

Use of the concept of morality allows anthropologists to avoid the difficulties of their traditional concepts of culture, society, and power, and provides an intimate perspective on the everyday lives of subjects and interlocutors. Yet the very concept of morality remains undertheorized by anthropologists. As a result there is little agreement or coherence among those anthropologists who study moralities regarding what it is they are attempting to study and how to do so. In this article I contribute to the current debate by presenting a moral portrait of a Moscow man, in which I hope to show that life-historical methods and hermeneutic analysis of narratives allow for a deep and rich description of individuals' moral conceptions as emergent within their social milieu. This is so because the narratives reveal the ways in which personal experiences play a significant role in shaping personal morality. This methodological approach is supported by an anthropological theory of morality that posits a distinction between morality and ethics, and focuses on moral breakdowns as the primary context that makes possible the experiences that shape personal morality. [morality, ethics, experience, narrative, life history, Russia

Context (archaeology · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Everyday life · Moral development · Moral disengagement · Morality · Narrative · Social cognitive theory of morality · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies