Stage 6: Deciding on basic moral principles by which you will live your life and relate to everyone fairly rare people have considered many values and have decided on a philosophy of life that truly guides their life do not automatically conform to tradition or others’ beliefs carefully choose basic principles to follow, such as caring for and respecting every living thing, feeling that we are all equal and deserve equal opportunities, or, stated differently, the Golden Rule strong enough to act on their values even if others may think they are odd or if their beliefs are against the law, such as refusing to fight in a war Motto: “I’m true to my values”

Carol Gilligan research assistant for Lawrence Kohlberg began to question Kohlberg’s methodology participants in his studies were all men consideration of individual rights over consideration of the caring in human relationships male perspective over a female perspective became one of Kohlberg’s most outspoken critic In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development

challenged Kohlberg’s claim that all moral reasoning is “justice reasoning” women’s moral judgments necessarily include feelings of compassion and empathy for others  “other” v the individual Women Men interdependence (“connection”) • independence (“separation”) responsibility to others • responsibility for oneself passive recipients • active agents seek solutions that are caring • seek solutions that are just and benevolence and fair moral wrongness is linked to • moral wrongness is linked to failure to communicate & violations of rights and justice respond moral interactions take place • moral interactions take place on the personal relationship on the political & legal level level with family & community with laws & contracts

Gilligan’s Stages of Moral Development Level 1: Self-Oriented focus is on the needs of transition to level 2 begins with recognition of the conflict between one’s own needs and the needs of others Level 2: Other Oriented focus is on the needs of others good is equated with caring for others one’s own needs become devalued transition to level 3 begins with recognition that the self cannot be left out, but must also be an object of one’s caring

Level 3: Universal Oriented focus is on the universal obligation of caring care is a self-chosen principle that condemns exploitation, violence, and neglect and demands active response to suffering caring for oneself and others is seen as intertwined because the self and others are recognized as interdependent all acts of caring are seen as beneficial to both self and others

Philosophy of Hard Determinism Determinism - theory that all events are caused nature of things and the world Future can be predicted, past can be explained Universe is orderly Hard Determinism If Determinism is true: all events are caused Therefore, all human desires and choices are caused Then there is NO CHOICE and NO FREE WILL!!!

For an action to be free it would have to be the result of a choice, desire or act of will, which had no cause That is, free WILL means that the Will or choosing “mechanism” initiates the action free act or choice would be one which is uncaused, or happened independent of causes, or completely disconnected from preceding events no such free acts exist actions are caused by wants and desires wants and desires flow from our character our character is formed by environment and heredity

Beyond Freedom and Dignity Behavior Modification or Trace the causes of any event or action back and it will have sources which are outside ourselves and our control NO FREE WILL B. F. Skinner Beyond Freedom and Dignity Behavior Modification or Operant Conditioning use of consequences to change the occurrence and form of behavior Reinforcement is a consequence that causes a behavior to occur with greater frequency Punishment is a consequence that causes a behavior to occur with less frequency Extinction is the lack of any consequence following a behavior

If people behave as a result of punishment or reinforcement, where is freedom in life? When people “choose” to do something they “want”, it is because they have been reinforced to believe they want it!!! Our “choices” are DETERMINED by our culture

Who has more freedom? WHY??? The Wall - Pablo Ibbieta

Jean-Paul Sartre Freedom is not itself a matter of choice MORE TO IT THAN CHOICE foundational quality of human being Cannot escape our freedom condemned to be free we are responsible for the actions we commit “You are nothing but the sum of your acts.” “to be is to act” because we are conscious of our moral responsibility, we feel anguish in the face of our freedom RESPONSIBILITY for actions

Viktor Frankl fascinating background - survivor of Holocaust - 1942-1945 performed a number of roles in camps (including Auschwitz) from physician to psychiatrist to slave laborer those who died in concentration camps have some responsibilities in their own demise - finding meaning to life is key to developing human potential - survivors found meaning in helping those less fortunate in the concentration camps

Founder of Existential Psychology Four Principles 1. Life is Being 2. Life is a process of Becoming 3. Life has choices and we must take Responsibility for these choices 4. Happiness comes from taking responsibility Existential Vacuum – thwarts us in finding meaning and purpose in life