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The idea of moral progress implies that there is objective morality, and that we can improve our knowledge of it. Progress implies a destination, it implies a s
by Flimm 3y ago
The idea of moral progress implies that there is objective morality, and that we can improve our knowledge of it. Progress implies a destination, it implies a standard against which the progress is measured, at least in principle.
- dotsam 3y agoThat is correct. In this is view, all evils are the result of a lack of knowledge, and so moral progress is achieved through the growth of knowledge. All knowledge is fallible and therefore uncertain, so even if we stumbled on objective truth (the destination which we are error-correcting towards), we could never know it for sure.
- vacuity 3y agoI don't think moral progress necessarily implies an objective morality. We can't be working towards something we can't know about. We just happen to be walking towards it, or not. What we feel to be moral progress isn't a statement about our discovering an objective morality but rather a social consensus based on, as you say, greater knowledge and altered perspective. Moral progress is the idea of an expansion of collective understanding and acceptance of moral beliefs/axioms.