ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the question of the relevance of psychology to morality—of capacity to duty. It focuses on the question of the human psychological capacity to accept and implement Aldo Leopold's "land ethic"—an environmental ethic that has been popular and influential in the "environmental movement" of the past decade. The Golden Rule tries to integrate the individual to society; democracy to integrate social organization to the individual. While naive and uncritical intuitionism can unquestionably lead to atrocious moral hunches, even so one should not discount the value of the moral experiences that are reflected in one's intuitions. The moral sense arises out of a motivation to optimize security and satisfaction in the context of a community. In a continuing study of over twenty years' duration, Lawrence Kohlberg claims to have identified six distinct stages of moral development.
