A shift in moral authority: individuals are increasingly demanding moral freedom.
According to social scientist Alan Wolfe, an unprecedented values shift has swept into American society since the 1960s. In his book, Moral Freedom: The Search for Virtue in a World of Choice, Wolfe claims that people have started to make moral decisions based on their own needs, rather than defer...
| Published in: | Futurist Vol. 35; no. 6; pp. 18 - 20 |
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| Format: | Article |
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World Future Society
November/December 2001
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| Summary: | According to social scientist Alan Wolfe, an unprecedented values shift has swept into American society since the 1960s. In his book, Moral Freedom: The Search for Virtue in a World of Choice, Wolfe claims that people have started to make moral decisions based on their own needs, rather than deferring to traditional religious and governmental sources of authority. As people demand the right to determine ethical and spiritual issues on their own terms, they are reshaping the social context for moral decision making. The idea that an individual might define his or her own moral course is still unusual in the majority of societies. Wolfe found that Americans want to hear moral “second opinions” as they make up their minds about different issues. |
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