The Moral Character

• Moral character is another factor to consider when determining good or bad actions
• The kindness of an action can be based on a person's character
• Character allows us to gauge a person's intentions about certain actions
• The term "character" originated from the Greek term "charakter," which refers to the mark put on a coin that determines its value
• We could suppose that a person's value is dependent on their character
• For Aristotle, the excellence of an action is crucial
• Moral character is the driving force behind moral actions
• Lawrence Kohlberg was critical of the assumptions of Moral relativists
• Kohlberg proposed the "Consensus Theory of Rightness" to reach an agreement on what is right
• He was influenced by Piaget's theory of moral development during his PhD studies
• Kohlberg approached morality from a cognitive standpoint rather than a cultural one
• He believed in the existence of absolute moral decisions
• Kohlberg conducted interviews with 72 lower and middle-class white boys using the Heinz' dilemma
• Regardless of culture, Kohlberg suggested that moral thinking develops through a set series of stages