Moral progress refers to improvement in concepts such as moral beliefs and practices experienced on a

societal A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

scale.

Michele Moody-Adams Michele Moody-Adams is an American philosopher and academic administrator. Between July 1, 2009, and September 2011, she served as Dean of Columbia College and Vice President for Undergraduate Education at Columbia University. She was the first ...

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".

Definitions

Allen Buchanan Allen Edward Buchanan is a moral, political and legal philosopher. As of 2022, he held multiple academic positions: Laureate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona, Distinguished Research Fellow at Oxford University, Visiting Profes ...

defined moral progress as "morally progressive changes in social practices and institutions ... movement towards some morally desirable condition or state of affairs".

defined local moral progress as "coming to appreciate more fully the richness and the range of applications of a particular moral concept", or developing a new one, and the spread of "practices embodying deepened understanding of justice and related moral notions"; in other words, a deepening of our grasp of moral concepts. Another view is that moral progress is "a greater success in describing moral reality". Moral progress on a societal scale should not be confused with

moral development Moral Development focuses on the emergence, change and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood. Morality develops across a life span in a variety of ways and is influenced by an individual's experiences and behavior when faced ...

in individuals, occasionally also referred to as moral progress.

Aspects

Moral progress in societies leads to moral progress in individual beliefs throughout said society. Understanding morality is also not required, once governments decide to implement moral progress notions, and do so through various incentives. 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 and

enlightened self-interest Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong), ultimately serve their own self-interest. It has often been ...

. 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. Moral progress in the last few centuries has been often the result of the actions of morally progressive

social movement A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...

s who attempt to popularize new morals. Measurement of universal moral progress is difficult, because there is no universal consensus in regards to the final destination, nor objective standards of

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

. Most complex moral concepts have more than a single established definition. This makes measuring moral progress even more difficult from measuring human progress in general. Measurement of local, more specific moral progress are easier, as it is simpler to reach consensus on local, more specific ethical issues. As Musschenga and Meyned noted, "Most contemporary Dutchmen will agree that the Netherlands since the 16th century made moral progress. It is doubtful whether Dutchmen from the 16th century would also agree."

Jeremy Evans Jeremy Deshawn Evans (born October 24, 1987) is an American professional basketball player for Paris Basketball of the LNB Pro A. He played college basketball for the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers before being drafted by the Utah Jazz in 2010. Duri ...

, however, made an argument that is should be possible to create a definition of moral progress that "relies on a correlation between increasing population welfare ... and ethical advancement".

Types of moral progress

Buchanan provides a typology of moral progress: * 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

Jacy Reese Anthis Jacy Reese Anthis ( ; born December 16, 1992), who has written under the name Jacy Reese, is an American social scientist, writer and co-founder of the Sentience Institute with Kelly Witwicki. He previously worked as a Senior Fellow at Sentienc ...

, for example, has argued for moral circle expansion as an important metric of moral progress and as an approach to bettering the long-term future for all sentient beings. His organization, the

Sentience Institute The Sentience Institute (SI) is an American interdisciplinary think tank that specializes in effective altruism and social movement research. It was founded by Jacy Reese Anthis and Kelly Anthis in June 2017 and has published research reports o ...

, researches moral circle expansion via studying historical and current examples of moral progress, such as the British abolitionist movement.

Examples

Buchanan called the modern

human rights movement Human rights movement refers to a nongovernmental social movement engaged in activism related to the issues of human rights. The foundations of the global human rights movement involve resistance to: colonialism, imperialism, slavery, racism, segr ...

"the most robust instance of

oral The word oral may refer to: Relating to the mouth * Relating to the mouth, the first portion of the alimentary canal that primarily receives food and liquid **Oral administration of medicines ** Oral examination (also known as an oral exam or oral ...

progress" Other examples of moral progress may include: * improvement in the treatment of all individuals in the form of the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

, reduction of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

and violent crimes like

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

s, spread of

political enfranchisement Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

(right to vote), and other human rights like

religious tolerance Religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, mistaken, or harmful". ...

and

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

, and the abolition of many cruel punishments, *improvement in the treatment of women in the form of the development and spread of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

and

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

, *progress in international relations through the emergence of international norms discouraging or prohibiting behaviors such as wars and

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

References