Is There Moral Giftedness?

Abstract

Are the higher levels of morality a gift given to some? The first part of this paper describes higher levels of morality by contrasting two approaches: Kohlberg's Cognitive Developmentalism and Dabrowski's Positive Disintegration. The roots of the more holistic theory, Positive Disintegration, are traced back to traditional appreciations of life-death cycles to develop the broad context of dynamic forces within human development and, more specifically, the value issues indigenous to speaking of “higher” and “lower” levels of moral development.

Rather than a strictly cognitive activity for solving moral dilemmas, high level morality is seen as a function of the total person, especially factors that constitute developmental potential. Higher morality is then not totally a gift but something chosen, striven for, and indeed the result of some kind of disintegration.