Moral time

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.