• dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Thanks for linking that. I learned something important today.

    I don’t think there’s anything here that suggests that a person should ascend this hierarchy. Rather, I think our observations fit the contrary: people clearly can hang out indefinitely at any stage. I suppose it comes down to environment, observation, and motivation to move up a stage. If a person’s circumstances never challenge a given world-view, how else would it change?

    What I take away from this is still very positive. What I can see is that a person is unlikely to regress once they understand a more advanced framing for social morality. Each stage carries additional nuance that is incompatible with the more broadly defined stage that precedes it. For example, stage 4 “Law & Order” is incompatible with stage 5 “Social Contract” in that people that adhere to the social contract are typically lawful, but break the law when the law itself (or its enforcement) is unethical. Once a person sees and comprehends that, the evidence is hard to dismiss and a blanket “the law is the law” framing is rendered untenable.