Social Solidarity and the Enforcement of Morality

It is possible to extract from Plato's Republic and Laws, and perhaps from Aristotle's Ethics and Politics, the following thesis about the role of law in relation to the enforcement of morality: the law of the city state exists not merely to secure that men have the opportunity to lead a morally good life, but to see that they do.According to this thesis not only may the law be used to punish men for doing what morally it is wrong for them to do, but it should be so used; for the promotion of moral virtue by these means and by others is one of the Ends or Purposes of a society complex enough to have developed a legal system.This theory is strongly associated with a specific conception of morality as a uniquely true or correct set of principles-not manmade, but either awaiting man's discovery by the use of his reason or (in a theological setting) awaiting its disclosure by revelation.I shall call this theory "the classical thesis" and not discuss it further.From the classical thesis there is to be distinguished what I shall call "the disintegration thesis."This inverts the order of instrumentality between society on the one hand and morality on the other as it appears in the classical thesis; for in this thesis society is not the instrument of the moral life; rather morality is valued as the cement of society, the bond, or one of the bonds, without which men would not cohere in society.This thesis is associated strongly with a relativist conception of morality: according to it, morality may vary from society to society, and to merit enforcement by the criminal law, morality need have no rational or other specific content.It is not the quality of the morality but its cohesive power which matters."What is important is not the quality of the creed but the strength of the belief in it.The enemy of society is not error but indifference." 1 The case for the enforcement of morality on this view is that its maintenance is necessary to prevent the disintegration of society.