Social Moralities in the Face of Pluralism, Individualization, and High Contingency

This paper addresses the moral dimension of social life, focusing on whether and how the notion of social moralities is still valuable to account for this type of social performance in plural, increasingly individualized societies, with porous institutions (Wuthnow, 2002) and high contingency (Joas, 2020, 2022). That is, if and how morality participates in the orientation of action in the face of social life, at a crossroads that, as several studies have shown, combines an increased relevance of self-orientation; an acute questioning and impulse to pluralize the principles and social logics that guide the relations and interactions among individuals and between them and institutions; and growing tendencies to generate discretionary relations with respect to social normative principles. This discussion is based on the results of empirical research for the case of Chile, which aimed to analyze the sets of normative ideals (values and normative principles) and customary components (coming from moral knowledge derived from social experience) that are part of the ordinary moral work of individuals. The main argument is that in societies such as today's, maintaining the relevance of the notion of social moralities implies moving away from the frameworks of socialization and from the perspective of strategies or interests in the study of actors' behavior. It also implies understanding the normative dimension of morality beyond the restrictive framework of good and evil and the good life, in order to include its plurality and to understand it outside a purely rational-argumentative conception of morality (Joas, 2000). It calls for a broadening of the focus on the moral performances of individuals, emphasizing their capacity for articulation and the fact that their moral achievements can be organized beyond a pre-established grammar. Finally, it implies restoring full weight to the customary dimensions of morality and its dynamics with the normative dimension.