Liberal vs. Conservative Morality

by practicalspactical

Aretae says …

http://aretae.blogspot.com/2009/08/klings-triangle.html

Jon Haidt, one of my favorite psychologists (not least because he demolishes Kohlberg’s silly moral stages), has a perhaps more complete answer. He suggests that the liberal/progressive side of the fence politically operates off of only 2 moral dimensions (harm/care, and fairness/reciprocity), while the conservative ethics usually operates off all 5 human moral dimensions (including also: Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity).

Libertarians are weird, so we don’t count.

I think this account does a good job of explaining why liberals differ from conservatives on the importance of income equality. From conservative POV, Bill Gates deserves his money from a respect/authority position.

From a liberal POV, fairness trumps that, and suggests that while Bill may deserve some reward, but the scope of his reward is way out of line, regardless what he did.

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