Moral progress refers to improvement in concepts such as moral beliefs and practices experienced on a societal scale. 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". The Sentience Institute is an independent think tank that researches the historical and future trajectory of moral progress.
Definitions
defined moral progress as "morally progressive changes in social practices and institutions"... movement towards some morally desirable condition or state of affairs". Michele Moody-Adams 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 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. 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 movements 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. 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, 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".
better understanding of moral standing and moral statuses,
improvements in the understanding of the nature of morality, and
better understanding of justice.
Social scientistJacy Reese Anthis 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, researches moral circle expansion via studying historical and current examples of moral progress, such as the British antislavery movement.
Examples
Buchanan called the modern human rights movement "the most robust instance of progress" Other examples of moral progress include:
