Moral Ideals and Institutions.

The article focuses on the misunderstanding regarding the relation between moral ideals and institutions. Recent social theory has favored to a considerable extent the view that morals somehow reflect the values of the underlying institutional order. According to such doctrine, moral ideals are an integral and organic part of the existing order--institutions and morals mutually supporting each other. Several recent analysts, however, have deviated rather sharply from this interpretation. Karl Mannheim, for example, distinguishes between values which support the prevailing social organization and values which oppose it. Mannheim notes, however, that from time to time the other kind of moral values have appeared. These he refers to as "utopian" values. These values are different from the ones embodied in the contemporary institutions. From the point of view of such utopian values, society must appear immoral. These values are visionary, pointing towards some mode of human conduct or of human relations which is not very well provided by the institutions. And if utopian values come to prevail, the existing order is eventually undermined and social change ensues.