PART ONE: LAWRENCE KOHLBERG REVISITED
For a general overview of Kohlberg's theory, see
Lawrence Kohlberg,
Philosophy of Moral Development (San Francisco: Harpers, 1981)
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The general theme of ethical development is the movement
from
ego-centered
to
societally-centered
to world-inclusive or deep
humanity-centered
The general
movement is triadic -- start in the center and call that " X."
Then we have Pre-X X Post-or Trans-X
thus, if we let X= conventional, we will have
Pre-conventional Conventional Post-Conventional
Let us use this way of speaking to talk of Kohlberg's earlier theory.
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Kohlberg I -- the earlier version of the theory --
Pre-conventional Conventional Post-Conventional
Me-centered
We-centered
Beyond convention to
but in a contentional
way
wider and deeper criteria
(Wilber's Mythic-membership We?)
An awareness of conventions
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
Immediate Longer
term Good
boy-
Conventional
Primarily
Primarily Kant
Self-interest
Self-interest good girl
(etc.)
rule-following
utilitarian (later
Rawls)
role orientation because this
is
Later still,
because this is what society
says
Kohlberg
what people say you must do
to
walks away from
you must do to be well thought
of
stage 6 -- saying
be well thought of e.g. a good
American
he lacks empirical
validation
At stage 2, there is the
start of role-taking.
Kohlberg calls stage 2 --
"mutual back-scratching."
In truth, in these stages,
the subject is not able
to understand any
horizon larger than
self
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Commentary:
Pre-Conventional
Conventional
Only with post-conventional
indicates
those
indicates
those
do we arrive at a
who genuinely do
not
who do
understand
stage where a person
understand
anything
something of roles
and
can critique the
bigger than
themselves
systems but only in
terms
conventional understandings
of what people say
about
and misunderstandings
e.g. being a good son or
daughter or
being a good American
The idea is that we start
very
Here we try to orient to
much under the influence
of a
"WE" bigger than "me"
outside
forces
but we tend to still internalize
(reward/punishment;
outside voices in an uncritical manner.
praise/ blame)
Then we
may learn to make judgments
on a
more intrinsic (nature of things) basis
regarding our longer-term self-interest
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Kohlberg II -- the later Kohlberg Here let X = Societal
Let's call this the "Pre-societal --- Societal --- Post-or-Trans-societal" Version
Pre-Societal
Societal
Post-or-Trans-societal
Stages
Stages
Stage
Pre-societal awareness WE-centered
Societal
Trans-societal Awareness
Awareness
Orienting
to
Orienting
to
Orienting to
something
bigger
something deeper &
than myself
alone.
wider than this or
that role or societal
arrangement
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
Immediate
Longer-term
Ideal
Ideal
Criteria of
Self-interest
Self-interest
Role
System
Person-in-
Maintaining
Maintaining
Community
& Enhancing &
Enhancing
or even wider --
(I-R-M-E)
(I-S-M-E)
criteria of
wholes and their
Basically as
above
Here the yardstick is a
whole
participant-parts
but add not able to
see larger than the individual
ego.
(e.g. web of all life)
social units bigger
than Stage 3 at its best
understands
Contains the resources
self as having
worth
ideal role relationships and
is
for cultural critique
in own
right.
committed to maintain
and
and reversal.
to understand
any
perhaps even enhance them.
horizon larger than
self Traditional marriage vow
is
Of old, Kantian
example of
ideal
and
role
relationship.
Utilitarian thinking.
Today more ecological
Stage 4 at its best
under
thinking. Capacities to
-stands ideal system
main-
go beyond racism,
taining and
perhaps
sexism, ageism,
enhancing. Thus, to
orient
speciesism, etc.
to supporting and
enhancing
In midst of awarness of
Elon (for the sake of all it can
be)
societal awareness, emergence
is
I-S-M-E
of deeper criteria -- e.g. deeper
sense of human rights and
responsibilities. UN Declaration
of Human Rights. Extended to
UN Earth Charter -- ecological
"rights"
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Commentary on
Kohlberg II:
A major change is how the societal stages are described:
Stage 3 = ideal role maintaining and enhancing (IRME)
Stage 4 = ideal system maintaining and enhancing. (ISME)
Here, Kohlberg is asking
that one orient to a wider and deeper vision of roles and of systems. In these
stages, a
person
needs to understand the nature and point of relationships (and of
organizations) and
to commit to them
in a new way -- beyond what they can do for me as a skin-encapsulated ego.
A person begins to understand what conditions are needed to aid relationships and social systems to flourish.
The motivation or
commitment is different; the value criteria center on the intrinsic
nature of these enterprises.
One
begins to think of RED&GOLD criteria: what is good for the whole
and fair to its participant parts.
In the first case -- stage
3, the whole is the friendship or one-to-one role relationship
seen (from within) in its constructive possibilities.
In the second case -- stage
4, the whole is the organization
seen (from within) in its constructive possibilities.
Stages 3 and 4 invite devotion.
One is not an outside detached
spectator but a committed participant within the role relationship
and taking responsibility for it.
One is not a detached spectator but a committed participant within the
organization
and taking responsibility for it.
One expands one's own identity to include care for the role relationship or for
the organized group (system) that
one dwells within.
Think IRME = Ideal Role Maintaining/Enhancing and ISME =
Ideal System Maintaining/Enhancing
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Note: Kohlberg claims that his stages form a Piagetian sequence;
For Gilligan, see
Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice
(Harvard University Press, 1982)
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Note: Carol Gilligan was the in-house critic of Kohlberg for a
number of years. Her ground-breaking book
gave
voice to an original feminist critique of Kohlberg and others as unduly
"male-centered."
Her
hypothesis was that women spoke "in a different voice" and their voice was not
being heard.
All
too often, "different" was taken as "lesser." When male development
was taken as the norm,
women were seen as less developed, not just as developed but in a different
way.
Women,
she would argue, go through the triadic steps --
pre-X, X and
Post-or-Trans-X.
Yet
they do so with a different orientation and speak their truths in a
different way.
PRECONVENTIONAL STAGE
SELF over OTHERS
Ideal is simply Survival
CONVENTIONAL STAGE
OTHERS over SELF
Ideal of
Goodness as Unselfish
This is an orientation to roles conventionally understood e.g. good wife, good mother, etc.
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POST CONVENTIONAL STAGE
-- SELF AND OTHERS --
the
search for equality and mutuality
Here there is an attempt to
balance self and others -- seeing that each person needs to have his or her
needs addressed. A realization
that in most difficult situations someone will get hurt.
Orientation to causing the least possible harm.
Difficult choices often seen as "lesser of two evils" -- not choice between two
goods
or even choice between a good & bad but both options seem to be bad.
A NO-Win situation. A tragic dimension to life.
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Elsewhere in the same book, Carol Gilligan theorized that in the First
half of life
Men tend to orient to "agency" -- to law -- ethical problems invoke
justice --
what is fair when each is counted as one --
the person is seen as a decontextualized individual.
Women tend to orient to "communion" -- to the concrete and contextual
--
to relationships and how to sustain them,
to compassion and care.
Toward Mid-life she noticed a developmental crossover. If men and women had not done this earlier in their lives, then at mid-life the crossover may occur.
Men may need to befriend the communion side of life;
women may need to bring in the agency side of life.
If this is accomplished, there is a type of completeness for both.
Both genders can contextualize and both can see the need for fairness and
procedures in institutional life; both justice and care are needed in a complete
life; both agency and communion are both to be prized.
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