Nevertheless, it is far from uncontroversial what moral progress consists in. Essentially everyone agrees that the abolition of slavery, women’s emancipation, animal rights, constitute examples of moral progress in human history. ![]() It is widely agreed that morality makes progress of some sort insofar as some transitions in the moral convictions throughout history can be regarded as morally progressive. Whether an understanding-based account of moral progress is feasible and what its implications for the notion itself of moral progress are, will be discussed. On this view, moral progress follows increases in moral understanding rather than accumulations of moral knowledge. A promising strategy, I will argue, is to develop an account of moral progress based on moral understanding rather than moral knowledge. More precisely, evolutionism urges us to ask whether we can acknowledge the existence of moral progress without being committed to moral realism. From an evolutionary perspective, on the contrary, since there cannot be something like moral knowledge, one might conclude there cannot even be such a thing as moral progress. ![]() Moral realists conceive “it is better than” as something like “it more adequately reflects moral facts” therefore, on a realist view, moral progress can be associated with accumulations of moral knowledge. In a minimal sense, moral progress occurs when a subsequent state of affairs is better than a preceding one. ![]() Although it is nearly uncontroversial to note that morality makes progress of one sort or another, it is far from uncontroversial to define what constitutes moral progress. The paper explores the interplay among moral progress, evolution and moral realism.
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