Alienation as Atrophied Moral Cognition and Its Implications for Political Behavior

Bibliographic Data

ID8975210
AuthorsMichael J Thompson (0000-0001-6428-9817, Dept. Political Science William Paterson University Raubinger Hall 300 Pompton Road Wayne NJ 07470, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume43
Issue3
Pages301-321
Publication date2013-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal for the Theory of Social Behaviour (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8308 • E-ISSN: 1468-5914
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jtsb.12021
OpenAlexW2153832258
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited29

I present a theory of alienation that accounts for the cognitive processes involved with moral thinking and political behavior in modern societies. On my account, alienation can be understood as a particular kind of atrophy of moral concepts and moral thinking that affect the ways individuals cognize and legitimate the social world and their place within it. Central to my argument is the thesis that modern forms of social integration—shaped by highly institutionalized, rationalized and hierarchical forms of social life—serve to constrain the moral‐ cognitive powers of subjects leading to a condition of alienation as moral atrophy. This state results from the withering of the subject's internal powers of moral reflection and an overriding predisposition to rely on external value schemas to make sense of moral and political problems. I then present an analysis of alienated moral consciousness and its implications for modern social theory

Alienation · Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · Moral authority · Moral disengagement · Moral psychology · Moral reasoning · Moral responsibility · Political science · Politics · Social cognitive theory of morality · Sociology · Subject (documents · Cultural Differences and Values · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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