The first stage is the premoral stage or the stage that young offspring are at where they view every behavior in terms of reward or punishment. Since their inborn human nature is very selfish with a desire to take for personal benefit and to dominate or control others including siblings and parents, the premoral stage is where the wild human animal is being conditioned to behave according to acceptable social norms and the norms of the family.
The second stage which really exists throughout adult life also is the stage where you realize that there are exceptions to behavioral rules. For example, you may have to say please, thank you, and hold the door open for strangers in public but in the privacy of your home you can forgo these public behavioral norms and even curse once in a while. You come across different behavior rules in school, on the job, in a profession, and speaking in public so you realize that there are rules to fit the occasion or the circumstance.
As an adult you learn that stealing can be justified in emergency situations if you are starving with skin and bones and on the verge of dying in a big city, unless of course you have accessible garbage dumpsters.
Lying can be justified in emergency situations if a criminal with a visible gun asks if your offspring are at home.
If someone at the point of a gun orders you to commit adultery then you may have to obey him or her as long as you are in their presence and in imminent danger of death which is another emergency situation.
The third stage of moral development is an adult obeying the law as a duty to society at large and to personally avoid a penalty fee or possible prison.
The fourth stage of moral development is the constitutional stage where you consider questions of individual and minority versus majority rights. Here we have the concept of human welfare and how far society should go or pay to protect the rights of the individual or minority.
The reverse is also a consideration and the moral question is what percentage of individual income should go towards the general welfare or general good to avoid enslavement of the individual or a minority. Concepts such as gender equality, gay rights, religious rights, free or moral speech, and quality and/or quantity of human life are also constitutional moral and legal questions.
There is the first premoral stage of development when you are learning the basic rules and morality as offspring with rewards and punishments,
the second stage at which you learn that there are not only exceptions to behavioral norms but emergency exceptions to basic moral norms too,
the third adult stage where you try to obey the law for personal and societal benefit,
and the fourth constitutional stage where you debate the concepts of individual and minority rights versus majority rights and try to strike an acceptable realistic balance between the three rights. The moral questions of just taxation, just government budgeting, minimizing environmental damage, and tolerance of minority values is of importance and appropriate changes in the constitution are made if necessary.
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