Ethical frameworks

Ethics

Ethics is simply defined as the study of moral codes and values in order to reflect on how best to think about moral values and clarify, prioritise and/or integrate them. There are a variety of ethical frameworks available. Western and Eastern cultures approach ethics from different perspectives. There are religious ethical frameworks and secular frameworks. The study of ethics is a broader study than a more focused investigation of models for moral living.

Two ethical styles

Do males and females think differently when making ethical decisions? [Adapted from Thomas I. White, Discovering Philosophy (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991). Full article available.

The debate over whether or not there are two ethical styles that can be related to gender arose as an unintended result of research done by the late Harvard psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987). Kohlberg sought to discover the process by which we develop our sense of morality. His research convinced him that to go from an undeveloped to a mature sense of ethics, we pass through a series of distinct stages. Kohlberg's model reflects a "masculine" ethics of justice.

When Carol Gilligan, also at Harvard, discovered that Kohlberg's system placed women lower than men on his ethical ladder and that all of Kohlberg's subjects were male, she looked to see if a female sample would yield different results. She thinks they do.

Taking first things first, we will start with Kohlberg's research because that is what led to Gilligan's work. Both Kohlberg and Gilligan have tried to do the same as philosophers throughout the ages, namely, exploring the best way to evaluate right and wrong.

Kohlberg’s stages of ethical development

The Table below is a simplified version of Kohlberg’s Stages of Ethical Development:

Kohlberg’s Stages of Ethical Development+

Kohlberg’s scheme is often called an Ethics of Justice. This model was inspired by Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory. Its critics suggest that in this model there is an emphasis on actions being intrinsically right or wrong. The moral character of an action is measured against abstract moral principles. This is a deontological approach to moral decision-making. It advocates thinking that is rational, objective and impartial. Feminists critique this 1960’s - based research as having a male perspective, whereby few women were able to attain levels higher than 3. This model remains, however, universally acceptable as an analytical tool for ethical thinking and moral decision-making.

Preconventional level pre-school age (approx)