This book develops a unified theory of moral progress. The author argues that there are mechanisms in place that consistently drive societies towards moral improvement and that a sophisticated, naturalistically respectable form of teleology can be defended.
Hanno Sauer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He is the author of Moral Judgments as Educated Intuitions (2017), Debunking Arguments in Ethics (2018), and Moral Thinking, Fast and Slow (Routledge, 2018).
Introduction 1. The Shape of Things to Come: What is Moral Progress? 2. Butchering Benevolence: Is Moral Progress Possible? 3.The End of Utopia: Does Moral Progress Have a Goal? 4. Looking Forward: Towards Teleology 2.0 5. Beyond Expansion: Which Types of Moral Progress Are There? 6. Mechanisms of Moral Evolution: What Drives Moral Progress? 7. Unsocial Sociability: How Can Moral Progress be Sustained? 8. The Long March: Does Moral Progress Require Moral Facts? Conclusion