ABSTRACT
Children develop basic moral capabilities during the first four years of life. As defined here, morality is rooted in obligatory concerns with others’ welfare, rights, fairness, and justice. These obligatory concerns give rise to moral reasoning, judgments, emotions, and actions. These capabilities are not evident at birth but emerge during the first four years of life. This chapter proposes that children construct and develop morally relevant capabilities through rich everyday interactions. Morality is thus neither innate nor faithfully copied from parents to children. The chapter delineates the development of four capabilities through four phases: (1) caring about others’ actions (around 0–6 months), (2) affecting others’ welfare (around 6–18 months), (3) promoting others’ welfare (around 18–30 months), and (4) judging that everyone ought to concern themselves with others’ welfare and rights (around 30–48 months). For each phase, children’s capabilities allow them to use their everyday experiences in their development toward morality. Only in the fourth phase do children meet our criteria for the kind of morality that makes possible both peaceful coexistence and moral conflicts in human societies.
