Born in Bronxville, New York, on October 25, 1927, Lawrence Kohlberg grew up in the well-to-do community, but was more interested in world events than in academics. After World War II, he became second engineer on an old freighter that helped to smuggle Jewish refugees past the British blockage of Palestine in the late 1940s. He returned to what became the nation of Israel in 1969 to study the morality of young people in that country's collective settlements.

Ready to pursue his education, Kohlberg enrolled at the University of Chicago. His scores on the admissions tests were so high that he was excused from most of the required courses and earned his bachelor's degree in one year, 1948. He began study for his doctorate degree, which he earned at Chicago in 1958. Kohlberg's career started at Yale University, as an assistant professor of psychology, 1956-1961. In 1955, he married Lucille Stigberg, and the couple...