Abstract

The paper analyzes Kohlberg’s levels of moral development from the theory of mental models. It assumes the theory of mental models and tries to check whether or not Kohlberg’s theory can be accepted at once. The theory of mental models proposes that reasoning is reviewing semantic conjunctions of possibilities compatible with the information available. So, the present paper is intended to identify conjunctions of possibilities corresponding to each level of development in Kohlberg’s theory. The result is that the theory of mental models casts doubts on Kohlberg’s framework. Beyond some doubts already indicated in the literature, one of those this paper presents is, that the conjunctions of possibilities do not have to be as complex as Kohlberg’s theses seem to imply. The conclusions that can be attributed to each moral level can be inferred with very simple conjunctions of possibilities.