Article
Article name Public Morality and Collective Action
Authors Shevchenko A.A. Doctor of Philosophy shev@philosophy.nsc.ru
Bibliographic description Shevchenko A. A. Public Morality and Collective Action // Scholarly Notes of Transbaikal State University. Series Philosophy. Cultural Studies. Sociology. Social Work. 2016. Vol. 11, No. 2. PP. 49–55. DOI: 10.21209/2308–877Х-2016-11-3-49-55.
Section
DOI 10.21209/2308–877Х-2016-11-3-49-55
UDK 17.03
Article type
Annotation The article considers the essential features of public morality in comparison to individual morality. The focus is made on two main characteristics of public morality: the common good as its goal and collective action as a means of achieving this goal. The author shows the parallels between the discussions of public morality and the discussions of public goods and collective action in economic and sociological theories. Closing the gap between private and public interest, between the requirements of individual and collective rationality requires risk, trust, willingness to cooperate. It is noted that the most difficult cases include the refusal to cooperate while understanding and ignoring the advantages of cooperation. The discussion of the “moral point of view” in relation to public morality in the second part of the article shows that we cannot speak of any zone of “moral indifference” here. This is due to the substantive importance of the corresponding problems and to the principal expendability of the social context, which also allows expanding a circle of problems, which would be marked as moral. The author proposes that in discussions of public morality we need to make a wide use of the results obtained in other research disciplines dealing with the problems of collective action in the conditions of a conflict of interests.
Key words individual and public morality, common good, collective action, individual and collective rationality
Article information
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