Social morality and the law

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of the interaction of norms and values of social morality and law as normative and regulatory mechanisms since their requirements are understandable for representatives of a particular society. It is shown that social morality and law are entrusted with the performance of a common function – the stabilization of social relations, which they perform by various means. It is noted that in modern times, the relationship between morality and law is represented by two trends: the stability of society can be ensured by 1) legal registration of norms and values of social morality and 2) legal protection of norms and values of social morality. The place and role of social morality in the cultural code of society are revealed. The question of the formation of morality and law in the early modern cultural and historical period is highlighted. It is proved that the formation of the modern theory of positive law and basic ethical theories (particularly, the theory of social morality) goes back to early modern times. Changes in social life in the sphere of science, production, trade, and religion, and the formation of the bourgeoisie as a class influenced the formation of the basic norms and values of social morality in the specified cultural and historical period. It is proved that within the boundaries of early modern everyday life, the formation of a new type of social morality took place. Lexical and terminological searches in the ethical sphere are characteristic of social science research of the specified period, and the formation of the modern concept of “morality” took place. Attention is focused on the fact that the modern understanding of law is derived from its modernist interpretation (law is recognized as a contract, law is the sphere of secular human activity, law is autonomous from morality and religion (the latter are relegated to the sub-legal domain), recognition of the priority of law-making and law-making activity of the state, the state is given special legal personality). The article considers morality and rights through their rationality and artificiality within the mechanistic picture of the world. Considerable attention is paid in the article to the peculiarities of the formation of individualism as a mental trait of a European and its influence on the formation of law and morality in the new era.