Moral Education; A Comparative Study of KhwajahNasiral-Din Tusi and Lawrence Kohlberg's Views

The present paper uses an analytical method to investigate moral education from the viewpoints of two scholars, KhwajahNasiral-Din Tusi and Kohlberg. The research has three headings: foundations, aims, and methods of moral education. Kohlberg holds that the foundations of moral education constitute audience's perception and demonstration, and proposes six steps for moral development; whereas, KhwajahNasir al-Din maintains that the foundations of moral education are represented in human soul. Kohlberg thinks that the aim of moral education is prevalence of justice among all people and application of human transcendental values to their lives; whereas KhawjahNasir al-Din thinks that the aim of moral education is to attain nearness to God. According to Kohlberg, the way to achieve moral education is not through training, rather it means transferring of the learners from lower stages of moral development to higher stages by having them take part in discussing moral problems; whereas, according to KhwajahNasir al-Din, the basic means of achieving moral education are improvement of behavior conditioning, and making use of encouragement and punishment. Furthermore, he thinks that the general ways of moral education include refraining from listening to unbecoming and obscene words, balancing between concupiscent faculty and irascible faculty, and the particular ways include curing some vile practices.