Moral Dilemma Approach

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Moral Dilemma Approach

• Write the alternatives you think a person has in
  making his/her decision about the dilemma and the
  possible consequences each alternative might
  have.
• Alternative 1 _______________
• Consequence _______________
• Consequence _______________
• Alternative 2 _______________
• Consequence _______________
• Consequence _______________

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Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)

• Harvard University professor of
• developmental psychology, later moved
• to the field of moral education
• His theory of moral development was dependent on
  the thinking of the Swiss child psychologist Jean
  Piaget and the American philosopher and educator
  John Dewey
• These men emphasized that human beings develop
  philosophically and psychologically in a
  progressive fashion.

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Hierarchical order of morality

• FIRST LEVEL Preconventional
• Stage 1 defer to authority (obedience and
  punishment) Simple Authority Orientation
• People behave to socially acceptable norms
  because they are told to do so by some authority
  figure (parent, teacher). This obedience is
  compelled by the threat or application of
  punishment. (soldiers carrying out orders under
  threat of punishment)

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• Stage 2 satisfy own needs Instrumental
  Relativist
• Right behavior means acting in ones own best
  interests satisfies one's own needs and
  occasionally the needs of others
• (People are valued in terms of their utility)
• You scratch my back, Ill scratch yours
• Justice Do unto others as they do unto you

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Relativism

• Most often associated with an empirical
• thesis that there are deep and widespread
• moral disagreements and that the truth or
• justification of moral judgments is not
• absolute, but relative to some group of
• persons.
• verifiable or provable by means of observation
  or experiment

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• SECOND LEVEL Conventional Morality
• Stage 3 Interpersonal Concordance
• seek others approval by conforming to
  stereotypes
• (good boy/good girl) Examples?
• -conformity to the behavioral expectations of
  one's society or peers

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• Stage 4 Law and Order
• individual is oriented toward authority, fixed
  rules, and the maintenance of the social order
• This stage is marked by obeying laws, respecting
  authority, and performing ones duties so that
  the social order is maintained.

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• THIRD LEVEL Post Conventional
• Stage 5 Social Contract and Individual Rights
• a good society is best conceived as a social
  contract into which people freely enter to work
  toward the benefit of all
• Considers the rights and values that a society
  should uphold
• Contractual, legalistic orientation but laws
  can be changed for the benefit of society
• (belief that rational people want certain basic
  rights liberty and life and want democratic
  procedures for changing unfair laws and improving
  society)

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• Stage 6 Ethical Principle
• more of a theoretical stage
• Individual acts out of universal principles
  based on the equality and worth of all human
  beings.
• These principles are abstract and ethical (the
  
• Golden Rule, the categorical imperative)
• (see Kant)
• Orientation to principles above social rules

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Immanuel Kant

• The philosophical concept of a categorical
  imperative is central to the moral philosophy of
  Immanuel Kant. In his philosophy, it indicates an
  absolute, unconditional requirement that allows
  no exceptions, and is both required and justified
  as an end in itself, not as a means to some other
  end.

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• Individuals progress through stages one at a
  time there is no jumping from one stage to
  another
• Like Piaget, Kohlberg believed that most moral
  development occurs through social interaction.

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Carol Gilligan (1936 - )

• Earned her doctorate in
• social psychology from Harvard
• University
• research assistant for Lawrence
• Kohlberg
• Her criticisms of Kohlbergs sex-biased theory
  were published in her most famous book titled, In
  a Different Voice Psychological Theory and
  Women's Development (1982)

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• Gilligan argues that Kohlbergs stages reflect a
  male orientation
• Menrules, rights, abstract principles
• Womenrules rights but also interpersonal
  relationships and the ethics of compassion and
  care
• Women's morality is more contextualized, it is
  tied to real, ongoing relationships rather than
  abstract solutions to hypothetical dilemmas
• circumstances in which an event occurs

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Gilligans Stages

• Stage 1 focus on caring for self for survival
• Stage 2 transition from selfishness to
  responsibility to others
• Stage 3 focus on care and conformity, with
  desire to please others (sacrifice of self)
• Stage 4 transition from self sacrifice as
  goodness to concern with truth of Self as worthy
  person

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• Stage 5 equalization between self and others
• Stage 6 care becomes a self chosen principle,
  accompanied by condemnation of exploitation and
  hurt of self and others
• ___________________________________
• -women undergo a moral development distinct from
  but parallel to that of men

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• Many psychologists now disagree with the
  empirical claim that men and women differ in
  their moral reasoning in the way Gilligan
  outlines
• Several studies have found that both men and
  women use both justice and care dimensions in
  their moral reasoning
• Question How do you determine what is the
  right action to take? How do you know what you
  should do?
• proof by means of observation or experiment

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Differences between Mens Womens Moral Voices

• Men Women

• -care
• -responsibility
• -concern with everyones suffering
• -preserve emotional connectedness
• -responsibility toward real individuals

-justice -rights -treat everyone fairly and the
same -apply rules impartially to
everyone -responsibility toward abstract codes of
conduct