Towards a Sociology of Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy has been the subject of psychological research or a concept whose value lies in the moral accusation of discrete moral practices. In this paper, I explore the concept of hypocrisy as a thick moral concept (Abend) for a sociology of morality more closely. First, I consider the limits of sincerity or the ubiquity of faking moral judgement and attitudes in all social interactions to ascertain when exactly we speak of hypocrisy in the closer sense of a directed moral accusation. Then I proceed to develop a formal theory of hypocrisy based on a set-theoretic matrix that can be read as a formal typology of positions in moral controversies. In addition to giving clarity what we mean when we call somebody a hypocrite, this typology can guide empirical research on moral struggles.