KOGNITYVIOJI PSICHOLOGIJA IR MORALĖS FILOSOFIJA: AR TVIRTOS KOGNITYVINËS IR MORALINĖS RAIDOS PARALELĖS?
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY: ON THE IMPLIED PARALLELISM BETWEEN COGNITIVE AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Summary/Abstract: The analysis presented in the article is devoted to the implied parallelism between cognitive and moral development. We discuss whether these universal aspects of human development are fundamentally interrelated, and if the answer is yes, then how this is possible. In order to reach our tasks, we refer to the widely known theory of cognitive and moral development formulated by Lawrence Kohlberg who was directly influenced by the prominent Swiss scientist Jean Piaget. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development emphasizes cognitive processes as the key component in moral judgments. Development of cognitive abilities has a huge impact on moral development. Although Kohlberg’s stages of moral development enable to structure cognitive and in a broader sense the psychological processes and probably help to predict moral actions, there are a number of weak arguments in his theory which we discuss in thes article. Presentation of Kohlberg’s theory, as well as its revision, and critics are the key points of the article. A juxtaposition of moral philosophy and cognitive psychology reveals new trends in the analysis of relevant moral issues, while the main focus of these different fields is still contradictory – human cognitive processes and moral maturity. Utilization of cognitive psychology defining moral issues while using cognitive methods definitely broadens the scope of cognitive psychology, and contributes to moral philosophy. The interdisciplinary approach to psychology and philosophy which we choose in the article enables us to confront the complex issues of cognition and the moral problems using different approaches, and at the same time we conclude that this discussion contributes to a broader understanding of the role and boundaries of both psychology and philosophy.

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