Moral progress

Moral progress refers to improvement in concepts such as moral beliefs and practices experienced on a societal scale.^[1] Michele Moody-Adams noted that "moral progress in belief involves deepening our grasp of existing moral concepts, while moral progress in practices involves realizing deepened moral understandings in behavior or social institutions".^[2]

Definitions

Moral progress on a societal scale should not be confused with moral development in individuals, occasionally also referred to as moral progress.^[4]

Aspects

Moral progress in societies leads to moral progress in individual beliefs throughout said society.^{[clarification needed][2]} Understanding morality is also not required, once governments decide to implement moral progress notions, and do so through various incentives.^[2] This can lead to the faster progress in moral progress in practices than in the moral progress in beliefs; in other words, with external pressures, individuals and organizations may behave better not because of their inherent beliefs, but because of considerations of social expediency and enlightened self-interest.^[2] Buchanan differentiates between improvements from a moral point of view, which are caused by external factors, some possibly independent of human motivation and agency, and genuine moral progress. However, he notes that the former generally leads to the later anyway.^[5]

Moral progress in the last few centuries has been often the result of the actions of morally progressive social movements who attempt to popularize new morals.^[6]

Measurement of universal moral progress is difficult, because there is no universal consensus in regards to the final destination, nor objective standards of

Buchanan provides a typology of moral progress:[8]

• better compliance with valid moral norms,
• better moral concepts,
• better understanding of the virtues,
• better moral motivation,
• better moral reasoning,
• proper demoralization,
• proper moralization,
• better understanding of moral standing and moral statuses,
• improvements in the understanding of the nature of morality, and
• better understanding of justice.

Moral circle expansion

Moral circle expansion is the process of increasing the number and type of entities given moral consideration over time. Social scientist

Buchanan called the modern human rights movement "the most robust instance of [moral] progress"^[11] Other examples of moral progress may include:

• improvement in the treatment of all individuals in the form of the
  political enfranchisement (right to vote), and other human rights like religious tolerance and freedom of expression,^[12] and the abolition of many cruel punishments,^[12]
• improvement in the treatment of women in the form of the development and spread of women's rights and gender equality,^[2][12][6]
• progress in international relations through the emergence of international norms discouraging or prohibiting behaviors such as wars and colonialism.^[12]

See also

• Evolution of morality – Emergence of human moral behavior over the course of human evolution
• "How Long, Not Long" – Speech by Martin Luther King Jr.
• The Moral Arc – 2015 book by Michael Shermer
• Moral philosophy
   – Philosophical study of moralityPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Moral relativism – Philosophical positions about the differences in moral judgments across peoples and cultures
• Pragmatic ethics – An ethical theory that emphasizes moral progress
• Sociocultural evolution – Evolution of societies
• Whig history – Approach to historiography

References