ABSTRACT
Supposedly, Kohlberg’s developmental theory has been lifted above alternative approaches by its reliance on sophisticated philosophical conceptions of moral reasoning and adequacy. Yet Kohlberg’s use of these conceptions—his preference for individual rights and formal principles of justice—has been judged partisan and biasing by critics in psychology. This essay poses the prospect that Kohlberg’s controversial philosophies are unnecessary to his empirical stage theory and can be eliminated without affecting it significantly. A decade or so of Kohlberg criticism has been unnecessary as well.
