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Essay on Plato vs. Kohlberg
Kohlberg, a liberal Platonist in the tradition of John Rawls, seeks a universal, ideal morality.
Kohlberg approaches the problems of morality as a psychologist seeking a sound basis for his study of moral development. He rejects the opinion, held by many in his field that no objective ethical system exists. The relativists who advocate this view contend that to hold another view would impose Western values on other societies and violate scientific neutrality. But, Kohlberg points out, this doctrine itself stems from an extension of Western liberal thought to cultural groups: just as liberals wish to extend equality and liberty to all human beings, relativists wish to extend equality and liberty to cultures.
Further, relativism is not scientifically justifiable; as Kohlberg says, "it prejudges the facts" (1981). Social scientists who assume that no universal moral system exists prevent themselves from discovering one, even if it does exist. Moral systems certainly do vary between cultures, but this does not imply that they ought to vary.
Kohlberg's stages are not, however, merely stages of psychological development; they are also stages of a philosophical argument. Kohlberg's argument, which is structured after that offered by John Rawls, begins with the assertion that a proper moral system is universal. "The claim of principled morality," Kohlberg writes, "is that it defines the right for anyone in any situation" (1981). Each of Kohlberg's stages improves upon its predecessor by identifying an area in which the stage is tied to the particulars of a situation and finding a universal solution to the problem.
The first two of Kohlberg's stages comprise what he calls the pre-conventional level of morality. Stage one resembles what Friedrich Nietzsche called the 'master morality': under stage one morality, the strong define what is right. It is moral for the weak to obey the strong; it is just for the strong to punish violations by the weak as they see fit.....................
