ABSTRACT
The view that social knowledge is usefully delineated into various domains follows from Turiel's understanding of Piaget's genetic epistemological project and also from the Piagetian conception of cognitive structures. Unlike moral rules, social conventions are established by consensus and agreement. Social conventions establish behavioral uniformities and coordinate social interaction. In addition to having this regulative function, social conventions are constitutive rules that define the social organization. Social-conventional reasoning is thought to undergo a seven-stage sequence of development. Another type of criticism is possible. Some critics point out that the various domain distinctions simply follow from Turiel's definitional preferences. The domains approach does not, of course, endorse the marginalization of morality or the fragmentation of the moral self. The domains approach would probably locate the unity of the self in cognitive acts of domain coordination. Morality is not marginalized but simply accorded its proper place among the differentiated judgments of which human reason is capable.
