Critique of Kohlberg’s Claim of Cultural Moral Universality Essay

The final level or Kohlberg 's development theory is Post-Conventional Morality. During stage five a human should understand social contract. A person at this stage is most looking for the good in the world. During this time, he or she will do what is best for society. During the very last stage of development, stage six, a fully developed person is focused on ethics and overall human principles. Kohlberg believed that an individuals could only progress one at a time. Although he believed that most moral development occurred social interaction, he did not agree with skipping stages. According to Kohlberg, the stages wee set in place and could not be skipped. In order for Kohlberg to determine which stage a person was in, he would test them with a set of moral dilemmas. Based off of their responses, he would then be able to fit them into a stage.

The author mentions that he doesn’t like how Kohlberg focuses too much on “why”. The author says that Kohlberg is narrow to focus on motivation rather the action itself. Another issue is how flexible or rigid each stage are presented. In the text a question is raised stating that can a person in stage 5 have a stage 1 morning. Basically the criticism here is that Kohlberg does not clarify weather his rules are bendable or not. The Author goes to on another criticism where he asks if justice is the most important ethical principle. He states that the sample size for someone to reach stage 6 is very small so why is justice the most important factor? Finally, his last criticism is how gender plays a different role in moral development. In Kohlberg’s research, most of which were young boys, he found the moral difference in young males. According the author Gilligan thought that Kohlberg’s research

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist, identified six developmental stages of human moral reasoning. The first stage that he recognized was the Punishment-Obedience Orientation, where the person’s concern is for avoiding punishment through obedience. The second stage was the Instrumental Relativist Orientation, where the person’s concern is to work in their self interest, and better their position. The third stage of moral development was the Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation, where the person’s concern lies with their reputation. Next was the Law And Order Orientation, where the person was less concerned with their own immediate well being to the maintenance of a larger society. The fifth stage was the Social Contract

Morality is defined as principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. It is like a different language we internally speak to decided whether or not we accept something. People may speak the same language while others may speak a completely different language, but each language has variation within it. When we hear a language that’s foreign to us we disregard it as wrong or incomplete. “And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk differently from us?

The moral implications of the scene are great, as this execution style killing in broad daylight was not expected from a man who had just finished a speech about “honesty, integrity, and hard work”. According to Kohlberg, however, this seemingly immoral act falls in line with Frank’s position on the stages of moral development. Kohlberg’s theory dictates six stages of moral development belonging to 3 broader stages, Pre Conventional, Conventional, and Post Conventional. The Pre Conventional is commonly found in children, and is composed of individuals who base their morality on outside threats, such as schoolchildren obeying teachers under threat of punishment. This includes 2 stages, individuals who only see the consequences of their moral actions as well as those who view morality as what is best for them. Next, the conventional stage is where most adolescents and adults remain for their whole lives. It includes two sub stages, morality determined by conforming to social consensus and morality determined by realizing the importance obedience plays in maintaining social order. Finally, the post conventional stage is one that most people do not progress to. It contains stages based on differing moral opinions based on contractual orientation, as well as morality based on abstract, categorical

Newsstands proclaim it. Talk shows trumpet it. Scandal, murder, and deception! People share a common disdain for these evils, scorning those who commit the dirty deeds. Laws are upheld to prevent people from doing “bad” things, but how do people come to an agreement on what is truly wrong? Even as society moves away from traditional teachings and perspectives, many acts are still universally looked down upon. Throughout history, the majority of civilizations have held surprisingly similar moral ideals regarding acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Although moral relativists believe that morality is individually determined, there is, in fact, an objective moral standard that governs all humanity, because a sense of right and wrong is universal, transcends time and culture, and is evident in the majority of people.

Advancing through Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development is something all individuals experience. All individuals continue on through these stages at different paces and reaching different levels. I have been able to advance through these moral stages relatively faster than other individuals due to events and experiences in my life. I have been able to not only develop morally, but also academically, being capable of learning and applying knowledge to everyday situations. This development has been assisted to by Gardner’s Intelligent Strengths and Kaplin’s Habits of a Scholar.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development were based on a moral philosopher by the name of Lawrence Kohlberg. His main interest was to observe children during growth to develop and conclude which stages they best fit into. After observing both adults and children, he concluded that, “Human beings progress consecutively from one stage to the next in an invariant sequence” (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development”). All of the 6 stages he created, represent the morality in which a child or adult can be at; he created an age zone for each stage. There are a total of 6 stages but each main concept consists of 3 levels. Level 1 is the preconventional stage. This stage focuses on punishment/obedience and how the person decides to act due to the

 Morality is based on spiritual and personal beliefs and on accepted standards for the respect of others.

Morality refers to the concept of proper human action in terms of "right and wrong," also referred to as "good and evil. According to Hobbes (1994:11), morality is simply a declaration of rules and beliefs that are considered absolute guides for human behaviour. According to Hare (1981:27), “Morality is a system of principles and judgments based on cultural, religious, and philosophical concepts and beliefs, by which humans determine whether given actions, are right or wrong.” Moral values and graciousness, in the past, were prominent in most teenagers. Every individual has capacity for growth. But a seed cannot grow without nurturing. And farmers don’t get to neglect their crops. So moral values has to be inculcated from infancy. Many years

First of all, Moral was invented by human beings as a way to live in certain harmony and to cooperate and taking care of each other, and there is no limit for moral and there is no clear definitions about moral. Morality is totally subjective, everyone sees it differently refers to personal or social or cultural that differentiate between 'right' and 'wrong' in the human society, but there is no objective 'right' and Moral are actions or values that are positive and good to the society and individual, classified as such because they are thought to cause benefit or harm. They are basic things such as not killing, not stealing, not lieing or cheating, not starting fights or causing chaos, that involve either empathy or social normativity. Everyone

The definition of morality or what constitutes proper morals is a difficult task and may be explained differently 100 times if one were to ask 100 people. Generally speaking, being moral is conforming to the standards of good or right. This vague definition is open for many interpretations. As mentioned, morality is not recognized internationally or is scrutinized as a weakness by the realist community, at least not openly so. Morality has played a role in international affairs and war for centuries.

questions asked by our own society. What I am trying to say is that every society

Morality is defined as understanding the core elements of good and bad behavior. For instance, it would be classified as morally wrong to kill a random person on the street. It could be considered morally wrong to abuse others for the sake of your own benefit. A morally good behavior could be an example of someone helping an older person with their groceries, or returning a lost item to a security office. These teachings were taught to us everyday of our

Moral development as defined by Lawrence Kohlberg is a theory that follows moral thinking through a series of three levels and six stages that are sequential and remain consistent.