--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In [email protected], "Patrick Gillam" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > > I'm thinking of the five or six studies the Nidiches > > published in peer-reviewed journals (I believe they > > were) demonstrating that TMers score higher on tests > > of moral development than did people who studied > > for the tests. > > > > > and we ought > > > to rely on better methods to > > > determine whether we are right or not. > > > > Better methods such as the studies cited above? > > Well, it seems to me that all that the study as > you described it would indicate is that TMers > do well at complying with societal standards > for morality. That is what any test of "moral > development" would have to be based upon, right?
Nope. See below. > Societal standards for morality might not neces- > sarily have anything to do with genuine ethics. > Remember the things that were considered not only > moral but praiseworthy in the time of the Inqui- > sition? Torturing people to death to save their > souls was *completely* moral in that period. Was > it ethical? At least one of Sandy Nidich's studies was on the relationship between TM and Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning, in which conforming to societal standards of morality is one of the "conventional" or lower stages. I can't find an abstract of that study (actually it was a dissertation, I believe, not published except in Dissertation Abstracts International), but I'd guess his findings were that TMers tended to score high in the "post-conventional" stages. (Nidich is a gung-ho TMer.) A brief description of Kohlberg's post-conventional stages: Postconventional level (This may develop in late adolescence, more likely in our mid 20s and beyond. It may never develop for most of us.) Persons in the final stages of the postconventional level, Stages 5 and 6, reason from a "prior-to-society" perspective in which abstract ideals take precedence over particular societal laws. Stage 5 - Social Contract/Legalistic Orientation - This stage involves a recognition of the relative nature of personal values, and the importance of having procedures for reaching a consensus and changing unfair rules. The individual at this stage can separate the legal world from individual differences of opinion. Stage 6 - Universal Ethical Principle Orientation - This stage involves defining what is "right" in one's own conscience in a way that is consistent with one's own abstract ethical principles that are based on inclusiveness and responsibility to others; there is a clear emphasis on universality, consistency, logic and rationality. The highest stage of moral development in Kohlberg's original theory. http://www.objectivethought.com/articles/kohlberg.html To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
