ABSTRACT
To appreciate Lawrence Kohlberg’s ideas about moral cognition, development, and education, we need to begin with Kohlberg’s own life history. In every generation there is an event or series of events that seems to spark intense interest in the question: How do we best prepare the next generation to become adults of good moral character? In our time, tragic events, such as the Bosnian genocide in the former Yugoslavia, the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, and the attempted eradication of 80 black African groups from the Darfur region of western Sudan all bring questions of human rights and moral education into sharp relief (cf. Brabeck & Rogers, 2000). For Lawrence Kohlberg (1981) and many others of his generation, the Holocaust brought about by Nazi Germany “is the event in human history that most bespeaks the need for moral education and for a philosophy that can guide it” (p. 407). Kohlberg also noticed that the Holocaust was incongruously organized by a country noted for its citizens’ high level of education, ourishing arts, and complex social institutions. This led Kohlberg to seek a new understanding of moral cognition and development and to look for educational factors that supported the development of people’s moral judgment maturity.
