Dear People Whom God Loves,
What I wrote in the last column about Kohlberg and Gilligan is what I remember from reading them a long time ago. Please remember that weakness. I will now write about Ken Wilber’s thoughts about Carol Gilligan’s moral growth stages.
He writes about two different types that show themselves in the various stages. He names them “masculine” and “feminine.” Gilligan’s very valuable contribution was that she interviewed women whereas Kohlberg interviewed men.
Quoting Wilber: “Male logic, or a man’s voice, tends to be based on terms of autonomy, justice, and rights; whereas women’s logic or voice tends to be based in terms of relationships, care, and responsibility. Men tend toward agency; women tend toward communion. Men follow rules; women follow connections. Men look; women touch. Men tend toward individualism, women toward relationships.”
As an aside. This shows how important it is for any society and organization to listen to both men and women. Not that every man or woman fits neatly into these categories. When we look at history, we see that men’s voices have been dominant and women’s voices have been suppressed.
Wilber then writes that Gilligan identifies the highest stage of moral development as integrated. That means, he says, that people befriend both the masculine and feminine voices, though they may act predominantly from one or the other.
This knowledge helps me to understand our disagreements better and see myself more clearly. It also helps me to see how I need moral growth.
More next time.
God Loves You,
Father Clay
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