Abstract

The work is in two parts. Part I comprises the first five chapters and presents an historical survey of Kohlberg's research, his moral development theory, and his application of the theory to educational praxis. The first three chapters trace Kohlberg's progress from his 1958 thesis, through the Piagetian turn, to the regression problem, which, in the early 1970's, marked the first of several major revisions both in Kohlberg's theory and research instrument. The remaining chapters in Part I chronical how, in the second decade, the Kohlberg project moved from theory to praxis, leading to a recent sociological turn in conjunction with Kohlberg's "just community" approach to moral education. At the close of the historical survey, a number of Kohlberg's retractions and retrenchments are examined. ;Part II also comprises five chapters, and assembles critiques and reconstructions. The study contends that Kohlberg's work rests on four interlocking positions: his Piagetian structuralism, his philosophical formalism, his dilemma-centered approach, and his commitment to the now shadowy figure of Stage Six. The two chapters of critique argue that Kohlberg's set of positions is inadequate to provide a full understanding of the moral life and that radical revision rather than supplementation is called for. The next two chapters move beyond critique to set forth six new lines of reconstructive work with attention to the contributions of Stanley Hauerwas, John Gibbs, Carol Gilligan, Robert Kegan, James Fowler, and Jurgen Habermas. The work closes with a review and assessment of Kohlberg's insights and oversights to date. An appendix which describes the evolution of Kohlberg's scoring system is also provided