Landscapes of the Soul: The Loss of Moral Meaning in American Life

366 Pages·2003·0.75 MB·English

by  Douglas V. Porpora

Landscapes of the Soul:
The Loss of Moral Meaning
in American Life
Douglas V. Porpora
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Landscapes of the Soul
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Landscapes of the Soul
The Loss of Moral Meaning in American Life
Douglas V. Porpora
3
2001
3
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town
Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 2001 by Douglas V. Porpora
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford
University Press.
A version of chapter 1, “A Caterpillar’s Question: Contesting Anti-Humanism’s
Contestations,” was previously published in the Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior
27 (2/3), 1997.
A version of chapter 5, “Heroes: Religion and Metanarratives,” was previously pub-
lished in Sociological Forum11 (2), 1996.
The paragraphs from Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Gay Science, ( 1974, Vintage, are
reprinted with permission from Random House, Inc.
Lyrics from “The Man of La Mandra” and “The Impossible Dream” used by permission
© 1965; Joe Darion, lyrics; publishers, Andrew Scott Music, Helena Music Company.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Porpora, Douglas V.
Landscapes of the soul / Douglas V. Porpora.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-19-513491-5
1. United States—Moral Conditions. I. Title.
HN90.M6 P65 2001
306’.0973—c21 00-061125
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
To the next generation:
Aaron and Dara, Mandy, Jason, Nicole and Nathan,
Julie and David
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
The Caterpillar’s Question 25
Chapter 2
The Further Geography of the Soul 57
Chapter 3
The Emotional Detachment from the Sacred 95
Chapter 4
The Meaning of Life 131
Chapter 5
Heroes 167
vii
viii Contents
Chapter 6
Callings, Journeys, and Quests 201
Chapter 7
Resources of the Self 237
Chapter 8
Communities of Discourse 273
Chapter 9
The Human Vocation 297
Appendix A
Theory 311
Appendix B
Tables 313
Notes 317
References 335
Index 347
Acknowledgments
This book took me a long time to research and write, and so many peo-
ple helped me at different stages along the way that I fear overlooking
someone. It becomes easy to understand how Oscar winners can go on
and on.
My former office mate, Barbara Hornum, first made salient to me
the idea of a worldview. I wrote the chapter on heroes first and am grate-
ful for William Sullivan’s early, supportive comments on it. My gratitude
also goes to Alan Wolfe, who was gracious enough to comment on that
chapter and on an earlier draft of the introduction. In the early stages,
many other people helped me as well, among them Caroline
Chmielewski, David Kutzik, Ernest Hakanen, Darko Surin, and Amy
Smith. I had originally planned to transcribe the interviews myself. After
completing three of them thirty hours later, I was grateful for Sharon
Gehm’s intervention. Without her, I probably still would be at this task.
At the library, Richard Binder was, as always, an invaluable resource
Drexel University will fully appreciate only now that he has retired.
Similarly, I am grateful to William Rosenberg and the Drexel University
Survey Research Center for the opportunity afforded me to conduct
public opinion surveys of my own. Rakhmiel Peltz corrected my Yiddish.
As I produced more chapters, I relied on other readers, particu-
larly the tough, critical eyes of Donald Eckard and Mah Hui Lim.
When a first draft of the manuscript was completed, one of my former
mentors, Magali Sarfatti Larson, became a steadfast source of support.
At this time, too, I was grateful to have comments on the entire man-
ix