Moralism is a philosophy that arose in the 19th century that concerns itself with imbuing society with a certain set ofmorals, usually traditional behaviour, but also "justice, freedom, and equality".[1] It has strongly affected North American and British culture, concerning private issues such as the family unit andsexuality, as well as issues that carry over into the public square, such as thetemperance movement.[2]
The term has been used in a pejorative sense to describe the attitude of "being overly concerned with making moral judgments or being illiberal in the judgments one makes".[3]
InFrench literature, themoralists (French:moralistes) were a tradition of secular writers who described "personal, social and political conduct", typically throughmaxims. The tradition is associated with thesalons of theAncien Régime from the 16th through the 18th centuries. The tradition begins with theEssais ofMichel de Montaigne (1580), but its heyday was the late 17th century.[4]
Although the moralists wroteessays andpen-portraits, their preferred genre was the maxim. These were short abstract statements devoid of context, often containingparadoxes and always designed to shock or surprise. The moralists aimed for objective and impartial observation freed from the preconceptions of their day. Their approach was never systematic.[4] The four principal moralists and their main works are:
In tracing the origins of moralism, sociologist Malcolm Waters writes that "Moralism emerged from a clash between the unrestrained character of frontier expansionism, a middle-class, Protestant emphasis on respectability cultivated in small-town America and an egalitarian and anti-intellectual evangelism among splinter Protestant groups."[5]
In the 19th century, the issues ofabolition andtemperance formed the "twin pillars" of moralism, becoming popular through Christian Churches in the United States, bothProtestant andRoman Catholic.[6][7] Moralism as promoted by some Christian denominations, such as theQuakers, manifested in wide support forabolitionism.[8]
The rise ofpostmillennialism in the 19th century "encouraged a general culture of Protestant moralism and pushed it toward a series of social reform movements, from antislavery and abolitionism (freedom for the slaves now), to protests against Indian Removal, to antiwar and peace efforts, to women's rights, to temperance work before and after the Civil War."[9] As such, the campaign forwomen's suffrage, evidenced by the ethos of organisations such as theWomen's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), was highly driven by the moralism of that era.[10]
In the latter part of 20th century, as well as the 21st century, moralists in the United States turned their attention to championing the movement to criminalize abortion care.[2] Moralists have also focused their efforts in maintainingblue laws, such as those that discourageSunday shopping, in accordance withfirst-day Sabbatarian beliefs and the sensibilities of some labourers and trade unions.[11]
In many essays, Taylor shows how this excessive moralism in both the Protestant and Catholic churches from the 17th century onward led to a "polite" Christian society where being polite was more important than being Christian.
Still operating at the margins of American religious discourse, Quaker civic moralism would see its legitimacy in the public sphere grow as increasing numbers of American citizens grew sympathetic with the Unionist and abolitionist causes.