The Moral Stages of T.J. Wilcox Throughout my lifetime, I have been through quite a few tough situations that required a lot of thought about morality and its role in my life. As my life has gradually gotten shorter, I have seen myself in all of Kohlberg's six stages of morality. Most of my younger years I think that I probably acted mostly in the firs three stages, but more recently I have been more in the last three stages. It seems to me that most people will at least advance to the fourth stage, "doing one's duty to obey the rules,"� and I believe that I have managed to stay in the fifth stage, "greatest good for the greatest number,"� and have even been in the sixth stage, "universal ethical principles,"� more often in the last two or three years. The fifth stage seems to be the place where I am at the most, though.
An infant
My Life (Bill Clinton autobiography)
The five stagesThe fifth stage of moral reasoning according to Kohlberg is stated in the textbook as the "social contract"� stage. The underlying point in the reading is that a person in the fifth stage follows the rules, but not blindly. The person has his or her own sense of what is right and wrong and that person is not afraid to stand by what they believe in, even if it would cost them a promotion or even a job. The main reason for this is because this person believes that their ideas, along with the laws they are governed by, are the best way to create a better world for everyone and not just themselves. For example, a person goes in to a job working for a car manufacturing company and finds out three months into the job that the company is...