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Male/Female Criteria for Moral Judgment The issue of moral judg

The issue of moral judgment has been examined in normative terms, assessing what is and what is not a moral judgment and how to behave in a moral fashion. It has been considered in developmental terms, addressing the question of how moral judgment is developed in the child and how it is transformed into action in adulthood. One of the approaches taken to this question in recent years has considered the role of gender differences in the development of moral judgment. This has created some controversy as different theorists have analyzed not only how moral judgment develops but how it might develop differently in girls as opposed to boys.

The issue can be seen sharply in the Gilligan-Kohlberg controversy. Kohlberg had set forth a model of the development of moral judgment that was later challenged by Gilligan and others, who determined that Kohlberg was actually focusing only on the development of one aspect of moral orientation having to do with the ethics of justice and rights. This led Gilligan to consider further gender differences as they could be seen in the development of moral judgment, and she determined that women's moral judgment is more rooted in context, more immersed in the details of relationships and narratives (Benhabib, 1987, 155). This was in keeping with certain conclusions offered by Piaget, who observed that girls have a more "pragmatic" attitude toward rules and see them more in terms of relationships. Of course, this led Piaget to deny the validity of the moral judgment of girls because he had a bias toward seeing male development as exemplifying child development as a whole (Gilligan, 1982, 10).

The thesis to be considered is that cognitively young boys and girls develop differently, and they therefore use a different set of criteria for making moral judgments. There are different arguments to be considered for this proposition. In support of this thesis are the following arguments:

1) Boys...

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Male/Female Criteria for Moral Judgment The issue of moral judg. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:49, March 19, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1703166.html