Synopses & Reviews
Conflict is ubiquitous and inevitable, but people generally dislike it and try to prevent or avoid it as much as possible. So why do clashes of right and wrong occur? And why are some more serious than others? In
Moral Time, sociologist Donald Black presents a new theory of conflict that provides answers to these and many other questions.
The heart of the theory is a completely new concept of social time. Black claims that the root cause of conflict is the movement of social time, including relational, vertical, and cultural time--changes in intimacy, inequality, and diversity. The theory of moral time reveals the causes of conflict in all human relationships, from marital and other close relationships to those between strangers, ethnic groups, and entire societies. Moreover, the theory explains the origins and clash of right and wrong not only in modern societies but across the world and across history, from conflict concerning sexual behavior such as rape, adultery, and homosexuality, to bad manners and dislike in everyday life, theft and other crime, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, witchcraft accusations, warfare, heresy, obscenity, creativity, and insanity. Black concludes by explaining the evolution of conflict and morality across human history, from the tribal to the modern age. He also provides surprising insights into the postmodern emergence of the right to happiness and the expanding rights of humans and non-humans across the world.
Moral Time offers an incisive, powerful, and radically new understanding of human conflict--a fundamental and inescapable feature of social life.
Review
"Reading Donald Black is like reading Isaac Newton doing sociology. Clear, fundamental principles underlie the flux of particularities in which we live. In his previous work on law, crime, and morality, Black laid out the geometry of social space and showed how your morality depends on your location in social space. Now he sets the social universe in motion: Conflict is caused by movements of social time, with faster changes across bigger distances causing more severe conflict. Especially striking is Black's geometry of postmodernity, where individuals are intimate with no one but themselves, while media-connected to a global diversity of distant relationships; the result is self-conflict and self-therapy, together with a very abstract altruism toward everyone and everything. This is Donald Black's masterwork of sociological theory." --Randall Collins, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
"Moral Time is a masterpiece which involves a most effective blending of sociological theory with world ethnographic data. As a very well written and highly engaging treatment, this book sees conflict as an ongoing process that is central to human life, and has the great strength of dealing with abstract theory at the same time that it brings in rich and vivid ethnographic detail, drawn from modern and nonliterate societies alike. Black's book will be a milestone in the study of moral behavior." --Christopher Boehm, Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences, University of Southern California
"Donald Black has devoted his brilliant career to developing a pure sociology that is independent of psychological, biological, or any other type of individual influences. Moral Time, a stunning theoretical and empirical synthesis of all forms of conflict, culminates his efforts. It is an instant sociological classic." --Allan V. Horwitz, Board of Governors Professor of Sociology, Dean for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Rutgers University
"With his typical boldness, Black has produced another classic. Moral Time is his attempt at a general theory of conflict, and he succeeds admirably." --Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books
"This is a great book, on par with or exceeding the value of Black's other classics, The Behavior of Law and The Social Structure of Right and Wrong... No amount of praise can adequately describe the respect it deserves... Moral Time represents a milestone contribution to our understanding of the wellsprings of human conflict."--International Criminal Justice Review
"Black extends his early work on social conflict by developing a new concept of social time, arguing that the root cause of conflict is the movement of social time, including relational, vertical, and cultural time." --Law and Social Inquiry
Synopsis
For 30 years, Professor Donald Black has been developing a theory intended to explain social life using only the variable aspects of social structure, without reference to the purposes of human action, psychology, or even individuals-a theory of pure sociology. Though Black's work is controversial, it is also highly influential. His previous books offer powerful explanations of the behavior of law, right and wrong, punishment, and social control. Moral Time takes this grand project another step forward to present a general theory of conflict. Why do clashes of right and wrong occur? When will they occur? And why are some clashes worse than others? Black shows how changes in degrees of intimacy in social relations, stratification and inequality, and diversity in culture determine when conflict happens. The greater and the more rapid the change, the more likely some form of conflict will ensue. Throughout the book, Black applies his theory to an astounding range of human conflict from bad manners to crime and warfare, accusations of witchcraft, racism and anti-Semitism, conflict about sexual deviation, rebellion, heresy, obscenity, insanity, and conflict about creativity in science and art. At the heart of Black's theory of conflict is the very first conceptualization of social time (as opposed to physical or biological time), a topic rarely, if ever, discussed in-depth in the social sciences. Black is one of few truly original social theorists working today and this book is sure to secure an audience amongst a wide range of readers interested in conflict-a fundamental and inescapable aspect of social life.
Synopsis
Conflict attracts a great deal of attention--as much or more than any other element of human life. People generally dislike it, and try to prevent and avoid it as much as possible. So why do clashes of right and wrong occur? And why are some clashes worse than others? In Moral Time, Donald Black shows how changes in intimacy (friends or strangers?), inequality (rich or poor?), and cultural diversity (Christian or Jew?) all determine when conflict happens. A reduction of closeness or a display of disrespect alters a relationship, for example, and the greater and faster the change, the more likely conflict will ensue. Throughout the book, Black applies his theory to an astounding range of human behavior, from bad manners to crime and warfare, accusations of witchcraft, racism, and anti-Semitism, conflict about creativity in science and art. Written in Black's trademark straightforward style, Moral Time is a powerful and incisive new take on conflict--a fundamental and inescapable feature of social life.
About the Author
Donald Black is University Professor of the Social Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is the author of six books, including
The Behavior of Law,
Sociological Justice and
The Social Structure of Right and Wrong.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: The Nature of Social Time-The Origin of Conflict
Part One: Relational Time
2. Overintimacy: Overinvolvement-Overexposure
3. Underintimacy: Underinvolvement-Underexposure
Part Two: Vertical Time
4. Overstratification: Oversuperiority-Overinferiority
5. Understratification: Undersuperiority-Underinferiority
Part Three: Cultural Time
6. Overdiversity: Overtraditionalism-Overinnovation
7. Underdiversity: Undertraditionalism-Underinnovation
8. Conclusion: The Geometry of Social Time-Tribal Time-Modern Time-Postmodern Time
References