Stages of moral sophistication

[James R]

Baron:

Yeah, you did! You gave us another tool for which to "justify" discrimination, social condemnation and, equally important, social pecking order!

How so?

"...reasonalby accurate assessment"? Don't ya' mean great method of judging others against your own standards of conduct?

That's what we're talking about, isn't it?

 

[Facial]

How is JamesR's list discriminatory?

I define discrimination as judgement upon factors that an individual is not able to change (e.g. race). People can move up (and down) this list within their lifetimes.

If you think personality is static, this would be where the battle begins.

 

[nameless]

Perhaps you missed my valid point regarding 'lateral discrimination' (discernment) and 'heirarchal discrimination' (judgement)?

 

[duendy]

This is from another thread, but I thought it might be worth giving it a wider airing.

In my opinion, there are a number of stages in moral development. Each stage involves widening the circle of objects who deserve moral consideration. Each individual person, as they mature (or not), progresses to a certain stage, and then remains there. Roughly, the stages are something like this:

1. Me
2. Me and my mother.
3. Me and my immediate family.
4. Me and my extended family.
5. Me and my family and friends.
6. Me, my family, friends and aquaintances.
7. Me, my family, friends, aquaintances, and the people who live near me.
8. All of the above + people who live in the same nation as me.
9. All of the above + people of other nations.
10. All of the above + non-human animals.
11. All of the above + "the planet".

Sociopaths never get past stage 1. Infants are usually at stage 2. Most normal children quickly get to stage 3, where they may remain for a while until they get older.

Many adults get to stage 4 or 5, but never go beyond that for their entire lives in any real sense. Some community-minded individuals make it to level 7. Even fewer get to stage 8, and an almost negligible number get to stage 9. I'd say that less than 1% of humanity ever gets to level 10 or 11.

Opinions?

hmmmmmm othe stages? 12))planet/Nature and universe. (as it is te patriarchy which divided 'cosmos' from 'Nature'

13))planet/Nature?universe--(i think the originary meaning of 'cosmos' INCULDES both Nature and Universe, so i will use that term wit that understanding)--understanding of sentience/ 'Nature spirits'/ 'Aliens'