Since the late 20th century there has been a tremendous surge among thinking people who are reflecting on stages or levels of moral, spiritual, and cognitive growth. Just as each of us on a commonsense level understands that we grow from childlike thinking to adolescent levels of thought to adult modes of thought, so this movement among philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual thinkers sees adulthood itself as characterized by further stages of growth. And these insights into growth and its possibilities reaches beyond our personal development to the ways in which humanity as a whole organizes its institutions and worldwide relationships.

Today, it is becoming clear that our common human future is endangered in multiple ways, from the threat of nuclear war to climate collapse to possible pandemics to a menacing displacement of humanity through the growth of artificial intelligence (AI). Wars and conflicts rage in many parts of the world leading to questions as to whether a world of peace, justice, and sustainability is possible at all. Has the United Nations failed in its mission to establish a peaceful world system? Have we failed in our efforts to address the climate crisis? The movement reflecting on the dynamics of human growth provides insight regarding these serious questions.

What meaning today can we make of the love taught by Jesus or the compassion taught by the Buddha? Where today do we find the significance of Martin Buber’s belief in the “I and Thou” of authentic dialogue or Mahatma Gandhi’s belief in nonviolence? What meaning does the teaching of the Dalai Lama have when he declares that “love, compassion, and tolerance are necessities, not luxuries, without them humanity cannot survive”? Are these affirmations peripheral to contemporary life or have we missed something extremely important that is being ignored by today’s civilization?

Many thinkers have articulated stages of moral, spiritual, and cognitive growth through a variety of levels moving toward ever greater maturity and wisdom. Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, for example, studied human development in the 1980s and this work was complemented by Carol Gilligan with her well-known book In a Different Voice in which she sees girls and women moving through the same stages but expressing these levels from a uniquely feminine voice. Among the many schemata that have been proposed, four basic levels can be underlined. We move from an immature egoism to a socially oriented ethnocentrism to a more encompassing worldcentrism and possibly, beyond that, to cosmocentric levels of wisdom and maturity.

This growth process can be described as ethical because egocentrism often means caring only for oneself and one’s family with little concern for the well-being of others or for the world as a whole. If we are socialized properly, we can grow beyond narrow egoism to an ethnocentric concern with our larger society, culture, or nation. At this level our identity has expanded to include a patriotic concern with my religion, nation, race, or culture. I may work for the well-being of those who conform to this collective identity, for example, the well-being of my nation or of those who share my religious identity.

For Kohlberg, Gilligan and others, cognitive, ethical, and spiritual growth requires that we move beyond this level to a worldcentric orientation. It is only at the third stage of growth (which Kohlberg calls “cognitive autonomy”) that we begin to be able to think for ourselves. This stage requires that we have developed our cognitive capacities for analysis, synthesis, universalization, consistency, and coherence. It means that, rather than deriving my opinions and values from my society and those recognized as my leaders, I am able to critically evaluate opinions and compare differing perspectives in order to arrive and my own critically-aware judgments and viewpoints.

There are a number of thinkers, going all the way back to Immanuel Kant and Frederich Schiller in the 18th century, who argue that effective democracy requires having a significant portion of the population at this level of maturity. If the overwhelming majority are living from the immaturity of egocentrism or ethnocentrism, then democracy cannot function effectively. Instead, it becomes simply a struggle of ethnocentrisms for ascendency within a society. A glance at today’s failing democracies in many countries may help lend credence to these insights.

Nevertheless, the ability to think for oneself also moves one to recognition of our common humanity and the common human potential for everyone to be able to think for themselves. In other words, it moves us to a worldcentric level of growth. The familiarity with one’s native background, group, nation, or religion no longer means a feeling of superiority for this background. I now begin to recognize the legitimacy of other nations, races, and religions. I become able to see things from their perspective while recognizing that other perspectives can be as legitimate as my own. I no longer morally identify solely with my own nation or religion but now begin to think in terms of our common human dignity or universal human rights. Wars, or violent conflicts with other groups or nations, become much more morally problematic.

Hence, this process of growth includes cognitive growth (toward the ability to think for oneself) as well as moral growth (toward the ability to see all others as equal and having the same rights as myself). It also includes what can be called “spiritual growth,” that is, growth in one’s capacity for empathy and love. These two human capacities are often taken as complementary. Empathy is the capacity to identify with the other, to intuitively identify with their thoughts and feelings, to feel their pain and suffering as if it were my own. Love, expressed, for example, by Jesus in Matthew 22 (using the Greek word agape) declares that: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” My neighbor includes all other human beings. This is clearly a command at the worldcentric level or above. We must empathize with and love all other human beings, just as we empathize with and love ourselves.

This cannot be done simply by an act of will. It requires a complementary process of growth. At the egocentric level of immaturity, I love myself or my immediate group, such as my family, but little else. I have very little empathy with the suffering of people from hunger, or wars, or other maladies around the world. At the ethnocentric level, I love my community, my in-group, my culture, my particular religion, my race, or my nation. Here people tend to see incommensurable differences between what they identify with and what exists beyond their group identifications. Love, here, continues to be parochial, selective, and often divisive.

At the worldcentric level, I begin to live as a self-aware expression of humanity (love of humanity). This means developing compassion, care, and universal rational principles applying to all humanity (and often to all life on Earth). I also become aware of the process of growth itself and the need to encourage growth toward universal compassion and love worldwide. This means that I adopt the stance of “conscious evolution.” There is a cognitive, moral, and spiritual imperative to foster growth in myself and others.

Ultimately, the “great commandment” from Jesus, quoted above, comes from the cosmocentric level. It is beyond worldcentrism because it does not come from our common human potential but from God, from the foundations of the cosmos itself. We are under an obligation to live from this cosmic dimension, to realize our destiny or role as citizens of the cosmos itself. In my recent book Human Dignity and World Order (2024), I described this level as follows: “Cosmocentric-Integral—I live as an expression of the cosmic holism (unconditional and transpersonal love, agape). This stage, open to continuous growth, includes harmonizing masculine and feminine elements within one’s being, integrating a dynamic cosmic consciousness of unity in diversity within our historical and personal lives, and living with ever-greater direct awareness of the holistic, ineffable depths of existence.”

Cognitive-ethical-spiritual growth culminates in living from “the holistic, ineffable depths of existence.” Everywhere on Earth, human beings are citizens of this miraculous cosmos. Everywhere we are the same. Everywhere we need to be living in peace, harmony, and mutual empathy with one another. This may well be a key to human survival, to avoiding nuclear holocaust and the other perils to human existence.

The world system that dominates human existence today was born in the 17th century, some four centuries ago, when everything on Earth was very different than now. Yet we are still limping along with the two dominant features of this outdated world system: global growth capitalism and militarized sovereign nation-states. The first is premised on competition by atomistic units (persons and/or corporations) that diminishes mutual empathy and the second is premised on national identity in which militarized fragments cultivate ethnocentric loyalty in their respective populations. In other words, the present world system cultivates egocentrism and ethnocentrism and tends to defeat worldcentric and cosmocentric development.

How do we overcome these structural impediments to human maturity? By promoting the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. Some fifty years ago hundreds of world citizens recognized these problems. They worked together to create an Earth Constitution premised on holism, on the unity in diversity of humanity and our planetary ecosystem. The Earth Constitution does not abolish the nations, nor does it abolish capitalism. However, it integrates these system-features into a comprehensive world system premised on the common good of humanity, on holism, and on the health of the environment.

The Earth Constitution provides not only a template for a holistic world system premised on the common good of humanity and our precious planet. It also provides a template for conscious evolution of human beings to worldcentric and cosmocentric levels of existence. It is only through developing real love and empathy for one another will we be able to survive as a species and bequeath our children a flourishing and harmonious world. Let’s embrace the way forward and work to ratify this Constitution for the Federation of Earth.