Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

is, they see ethical situations as isolated, not part of a larger rule or
convention.
concerning other people are completely a matter of obedience
to authority to avoid external punishment.
From there, we grow into an internalized version of preconventional
thought. We become egoistic; all that matters is
The pre-conventional level of moral development, then,
avoiding pain from external authorities, then gaining pleasure
and avoiding pain from personal wants.
The second level, an adolescent approach to morality, is what
Kohlberg termed conventional; that is, there are conventions or
rules that guide us in our ethical deliberations.
enforced norms. If we act in the right way, others give us
approval, and that is what we seek at this level. If we act
wrongly, others express their disapproval, and we never want
others to think ill of us.
The second conventional level moves from getting the approval
of others to serving an abstract duty. We do the right thing
because we are law-abiding citizens. The rules at this level are
abstract, not dictated by a concrete social context, but there is
no philosophical deliberation about them. They simply are the
law, and the law is to be followed.
for the rules. Here, we are engaged in what philosophers call
ethics, that is, setting out the means by which we generate ethical
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