Page 113 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

90 Communication and Evolution of Society

become the moral theme; for logical reasons complete reciprocity
must be required. At this level the stages of moral consciousness
are differentiated according to the degree to which action mo-
tives are symbolically structured. If the needs relevant to action
are allowed to remain outside the symbolic universe, then the
admissible universalistic norms of action have the character of
rules for maximizing utility and general legal norms that give
scope to the strategic pursuit of private interests, under the con-
dition that the egoistic freedom of each is compatible with that
of all. With this the egocentrism of the second stage is literally
raised to a principle; this corresponds to Kohlberg’s stage 5
(contractual-legalistic orientation). If needs are understood as
culturally interpreted but ascribed to individuals as natural prop-
erties, the admissible universalistic norms of action have the
character of general moral norms. Each individual is supposed to
test monologically the generalizability of the norm in question.
This corresponds to Kohlberg’s stage 6 (conscience orientation).
Only at the level of a universal ethics of speech [Sprachethik]
can need interpretations themselves—that is, what each indi-
vidual thinks he should understand and represent as his ‘‘true”’
interests—also become the object of practical discourse. Kohl-
berg does not differentiate this stage from stage 6, although there
is a qualitative difference: the principle of justification of norms
is no longer the monologically applicable principle of generaliza-
bility but the communally followed procedure of redeeming
normative validity claims discursively. An unexpected result of
our attempt to derive the stages of moral consciousness from the
stages of interactive competence is the demonstration that Kohl-
berg’s schema of stages is incomplete.

IV

A paradoxical relation is expressed in the identity of the ego:
as a person in general the ego is like all other persons, but as an
individual he is utterly different from all other individuals. Ego
identity proves itself in the ability of the adult to construct new
identities in conflict situations and to bring these into harmony