ABSTRACT
Theoretically parallel to moral reasoning as advanced by Lawrence Kohlberg, relationship reasoning is conceptualized to be developmental in process and to potentially evolve to a level in which what is valued are the ethics of reciprocity and mutuality in a context of equal, shared power. The experiences of inequality and interconnection, inherent in the relation of parent and child, then give rise to the ethics of justice and care, the ideals of human relationship — the vision that self and other will be treated as of equal worth, that despite differences in power, things will be fair; the vision that everyone will be responded to and included, that no one will be left alone or hurt. These disparate visions in their tension reflect the paradoxical truths of human experience — that we know ourselves as separate only insofar as’ we live in connection with others, and that we experience relationship only insofar as we differentiate other from self.
