It also refers to a relationship – such as teacher/pupil or guru/disciple – in which one party is taken to have greater moral awareness than the other;[1] or to the beneficial hierarchy of parent/child or doctor/patient.
[4] In similar fashion, Robin Skynner viewed moral ideas (such as the 'myths' of Charis Katakis) as being interpretable at different levels, depending on the degree of mental health attained;[5] while Eric Berne saw the three ego states of Parent/Adult/Child as falling naturally into a moral hierarchy universally respected in both time and place.
[6] Dante's universe was structured in a hierarchy of moral sins and moral virtues,[7] the stratified circles of Hell reaching down for example from the self-indulgent sins at the higher levels, to those of violence below, and the fraudulent at the bottom.
[8] The Confucian concept of a moral hierarchy traditionally served as a check on arbitrary power in China.
[9] Arguably at least, the concept of a moral hierarchy still influences China's view of its place in the world today.