ABSTRACT
According to Kohlberg (1981, p. 30) Plato’s argument “He who knows the good chooses the good” has psychological reality. Virtuous action is guided by knowledge of the good. Knowledge of the good refers to justice. Justice is a moral principle for resolving competing claims and is a reason for action. Moral reasoning has been studied as moral competence and refers to the highest stage of reasoning in the domain of justice a person is capable of at the time of measurement (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987). Because of the complexity of concrete situations involving many demands, desires, and responsibilities, moral competence is assessed in hypothetical, nearly context-free situations with two conflicting moral values (Higgins, Power, & Kohlberg, 1984). Kohlberg and Candee (1984, p. 519) referred to this moral competence when they claimed “. . . that persons . . . at each higher stage of moral reasoning are more likely to act . . . in accord with choices about situations that they judged to be right when they were somewhat removed from the situation itself.” (italics added). This hypothesis reflects the idea that a person is supposed to have a better moral view on the situation when that situation can be reflected upon from a certain distance.
