It is hardly plausible to view a whole succession of logics as an evolutionary and functional program of innate wiring, particularly in light of the fact that the most mature logical structures are reached only by some adults.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that complex logical reasoning develops over time and is not innate for everyone, highlighting the variance in cognitive maturity among adults.
Lawrence Kohlberg's quote reflects on the intricacies of human cognition, emphasizing that the ability to engage in advanced logical reasoning is not simply an innate ability present from birth but rather a skill that evolves through experience and can differ significantly among individuals. It suggests that while some logical frameworks may develop naturally, the more complex and mature forms of logic are attained through life experiences and intellectual growth across different stages of adulthood.
In practice
This quote can be used in a classroom setting to foster a discussion about cognitive development.
The unit of effectiveness of education is not the individual but the group. An individual's moral values are primarily important for society as they contribute to a moral social climate, not as they induce particular pieces of behavior.
It seems obvious that moral stages must primarily be the products of the child's interaction with others rather than the direct unfolding of biological or neurological structures.
All individuals in all cultures use the same thirty basic moral categories, concepts, or principles, and all individuals in all cultures go through the same order or sequence of gross stage development, though they vary in rate and terminal point of development.
If our psychology seems crude and weak in what it can say about the great human experiences, it is better to make that clear and to mark where we must go than to ignore it.
Although it may be true that the notion of teaching virtues such as honesty or integrity arouses little controversy, it is also true that vague consensus on the goodness of these virtues conceals a great deal of actual disagreement over their definitions.
The arguments about parents being too permissive and kids growing up without superegos are not based on fact. Our research tells us that the family is not the only purveyor of morality.
She was here on earth to make sense of its wild enchantments.
I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there - that is living.
I often don't say things out loud, even when I should. I contain and compartmentalize to a disturbing degree: In my belly-basement are hundreds of bottles of rage, despair, fear, but you'd never guess from looking at me.
All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand; and the wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive.
We are all prisoners but some of us are in cells with windows and some without.
The voice of the people is the voice of humbug.
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