Ethics, Metaphor and Play

this paper the author suggests a practical way to strengthen the moral faculty of children by means of literature and play. Firstly, two examples of cognitive moral development approach, Piaget's and Kohlbergs, are briefly introduced and discussed. by considering some feminist's objections to this approach, the author reviews Gilligan's alternative, narrative/hermeneutic approach to moral development. then he defines metaphor, both conceptual and non-linguistic and concludes that play, especially pretend play, is a kind of extended conceptual metaphor. This definition can help us realize the potentiality of literature and play as two main sources of children`s moral development in the context of a narrative-based approach.