D. Post Conventional Transitional:

Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles features:

  • 1. Altruistic approach to life

  • 2. Universal principles of justice & equality

  • 3. All lives are equally or morally valued

  • 4. Money not important, instead ideas, concepts & principles are more so

  • 5. Expect same thing of others as you are wiling to give to them

  • 6. Right/wrong based on circumstances surrounding an action

  • 7. Go beyond the letter of the law

  • 8. Put people first over money

  • 9. Highest principle of justice

Example:" Everyone needs to drive at a safe speed to protect all of us!"

Ages: highly educated & sophisticated adults

Population: 5 % or less of US population

Examples:

  • Jesus Christ Jesus Christ

  • Ghandi M. Ghandi: bring social-political change through non-violence

  • Martin Luther King: bring social-political change through non-violence

  • Mother Theresa: Put people first over money

  • Many Justices of US Supreme Court

An individual who reaches this stage acts out of universal principles based upon the equality and worth of all human beings. Persons are never means to an end, but are ends in themselves. Having rights means more than individual liberties. It means that every individual is due consideration of his interests in every situation, those interests being of equal importance with ones own. This is the "Golden Rule" model. A list of rules inscribed in stone is no longer necessary. At this level, God is understood to say what is right because it is right; His sayings are not right, just because it is God who said them. Persons at this level have accepted God's invitation to "come and let us reason together".