Mackie Functionalist Socialization , Family and Character *

According to functionalism, the family internalizes and transmits society's supposed value consensus from one generation to the next, and such socialization explains morality, social order, and cultural uniformities. I present three investigations tha t challenge the concept of functionalist socialization, and propose alternative theories that may better explain observations. First, I present evidence from developmental psychology based largely on American subjects and an ethnographic report from Burkina Faso which suggest that the characters of children are not formed by parental socialization. Second, I report data from Europe which suggest that the weaker is family and its supervision, the stronger is character and internalized morality. Third, I report a n account of European modernization which suggests that weaker family ties broaden extrafamilial associations and generalize moral orientation. Finally, I suggest that Schelling's game-theoretic account of social conventions is a better explanation of cultural continuities and discontinuities than is functionalism. 1. The Family as the Factory Which Produces Individual Character Family is the basis of a successful society. Children are taught rules of morality by their parents, on behalf of society. Poor character is due to poor parental effort. Families used to be large and important, and raised virtuous children; now families are small and unimportant, and raise less virtuous children. Strong families make for more moral societies. The decline of family and the decline of marriage contribute to a galloping individualism that undermines both morality and happiness. I can think of few propositions so uncontroversial. I once affirmed all of them myself. Yet, I shall argue, each of them is false. Before going to the details I want to establish, in principle, that it is possible for widely held and cherished beliefs to be false. This is easy to see with respect to beliefs about the physical world. We understand why our ancestors believed that the earth was the center of the universe, and we understand why they were wrong. Consider some beliefs about social life that were once widely held. The * This article began life as a commentary on a paper by Robert Rowthorn extolling family values, presented at a conference organized at Balliol College, Oxford University by David Vines and Alan Montefiore; I thank all participants. Thanks also to Diego Gambetta and Michael Bacharach for related discussions, and to Michael Baurmann and a reviewer for Analyse €4 Kritik. I am responsible for the content.