Moral Development

Moral Reasoning
Moral Development
• Do people’s values change over time?
• Kohlberg’s model of moral development
• Level one: Ethics of egocentrism (Preconventional)
• Stage one: Punishment and obedience orientation
• Stage two: Instrumental and Relativity orientation
• Level two: Ethics of others (Conventional)
• Stage three: Interpersonal Concordance Orientation
• Stage four: Law and order orientation
• Level three: Ethics of principles (Postconventional)
• Stage five: Social contract orientation
• Stage six: Universal moral principles orientation
Moral Thought and Moral Reasoning
• Don’t expect perfect correlations between moral judgment and moral
action
• Kohlberg’s general hypothesis
• moral reasoning is more consistent, predictable and responsible at the higher
stages because the stages themselves increasingly employ more stable and
general standards
• Kohlberg would like to see people advance to the highest possible
stage of moral thought
• The best possible society would contain individuals who not only understand
the need for social order (stage 4) but can entertain visions of universal
principles, such as justice and liberty (stage 6)
Criticisms of Kohlberg
• Not everyone is enthusiastic about the concept of a postconventional
morality.
• It is dangerous for people to place their own principles above society and the
law.
• Kohlberg's stages are culturally biased.
• He has developed a stage model based on the Western philosophical tradition
and has then applied this model to non-Western cultures without considering
the extent to which they have different moral outlooks.
• Kohlberg’s theory is gender-biased.
• Stages were derived primarily from interviews with males, and Gilligan
charges that the stages reflect a decidedly male orientation.
What is Moral Reasoning?
• The example of baby Theresa
• Anencephaly
What is Moral Reasoning?
• The Benefits argument
• The argument that we should not use people as means
• The argument from the wrongness of killing
The Structure of Moral Reasoning
• It involves three essential components
• An understanding of what reasonable moral standards require, prohibit,
value, or condemn
• Evidence or information that shows that a particular person, policy,
institution, or behavior has the kinds of features that these moral standards
require, prohibit, value, or condemn
• Moral judgment
The Structure of Moral Reasoning…
• Uncovering implicit moral standards by retracing a person’s moral
reasoning back to its bases
• What factual information does the person accept as evidence for this moral
judgment?
• What moral standards are needed to relate this factual information (logically)
to the moral judgment?
Example
• Tracy had cerebral palsy and was killed by her father in 1993. Robert
put her daughter in the cab of his pickup truck and piped in exhaust
fumes until she died. At the time of her death, Tracy weighed less
than 40 pounds, and she was described as “functioning at the mental
level of a three-month-old baby.” Mrs. Robert said that she was
relieved to find Tracy dead when she arrived home and added that
she “didn’t have the courage” to do it herself.

• Robert did something very wrong by killing a handicapped person and

making a decision on her behalf.