Ethical foundations and moral development in Turkish folk tales: An analysis through kohlberg's approach

In this period where moral decay is intensely debated in contemporary societies, the primary aim of this study is to analyze the moral reasoning structures of characters in folktales in light of theoretical approaches explaining individuals' moral decision-making processes. The study aims to obtain findings regarding the moral structure of society as reflected in folktales through an interdisciplinary approach, addressing folklore and moral development theory on an intersectional ground. In contrast to the majority of studies on Turkish folk narratives, which predominantly focus on compilation, textualization, and genre classification, this study aims to contribute to the more limited field of literary ethical analysis. Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development formed the methodological basis of the study, as it offers a measurable framework for evaluating moral reasoning by focusing not on which behavior an individual exhibits, but on how they justify this behavior. Before determining the moral development levels of the characters in the folktales, the concept of ethics was discussed within the context of folklore; within this framework, how the moral understanding in early narratives was shaped by social values, belief systems, and the narrative tradition was examined. To assess the moral foundations of Turkish folktales more accurately, pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Turkish moral understandings were considered together with the moral understanding found in transitional period works that function as a bridge between these two eras. Thus, the historical continuity and transformation line of the moral structures observed in the folktales were revealed more distinctly. In the main section of the study, 35 folktales and 109 characters within these tales were examined in light of the moral development theory. As a result of this analysis, it was concluded that women are often represented with qualities corresponding to the "Good Boy/Good Girl" image, such as conformity and acting according to social expectations, while men are represented by qualities concentrated in the Law and Order and Social Contract stages, such as being authorities, builders of order, and implementers of social contracts. Furthermore, the finding that women lag behind men in moral development levels at all stages except the "Good Boy/Good Girl" stage was explained by the codes of gender roles in moral representation. As a result of the analyses in this study, it was stated that the moral foundations in folktales are mostly shaped by religious references and social value judgments. In addition, attention was drawn to the role of narrators in moral education. Furthermore, the transformation of values through certain themes was examined in the context of moral change. All these examinations concluded that folktales present ethical ruptures and transgenerational moral weaknesses with their cultural projections, while also containing themes that nurture human dignity and promise hope for the future, such as justice, friendship, honesty,loyalty and heroism. In this context, it is stated that the results reached in the study not only reveal a moral continuity extending from the past to the present but also that folktales add historical and social depth to contemporary ethical debates. Keywords: folktale, moral development, ethics, Kohlberg, literary ethical analysis, moral values