Questioning Morals and Moral Questions in Organizations: Review and Response

Abstract

Steven Feldman¿s introduction is prefaced by a short remark from William James extolling the importance of prayer to the establishing of a self that is responsible to the `higher tribunals¿. From there on it becomes increasingly clear that Feldman¿s task is to direct us toward such higher tribunals. In the preface Feldman advises us that he establishes a theory of moral tradition, designed to investigate the historical and cultural context of moral commitment. It should be clear that this is theorizing with definite auspices: the religious beliefs that Feldman `professes¿ (and Weber¿s caustic remarks on the professing of religion in his essay `Science as a Vocation¿ are, I think, worth recalling here) are as central to the enterprise as they are absent. They are central in the grounding of the book as a moral project while they are absent because they are never spelled out clearly as a set of specific commitments.