Related to this, curious to know what you think of Philip Kitcher’s idea (in The Ethical Project and Moral Progress) that we should do away with the search for an all-encompassing theory of morality and instead focus on how moral progress was made in the past and try to mimic it. He argues this on the grounds that high level theories of ethics haven’t had much of an effect in practice on how people and countries act.
Off the top of my head, I'd worry that this follows from the more general proposition that academics typically don't have much influence, and so isn't an indictment of ethical theory in particular.
It may well be a good idea to learn from the history of moral progress, but I guess I remain hopeful that moral theory will prove helpful in future even if it turns out it hasn't achieved much in the past. (E.g., I think it'll be important for helping us to identify what changes are "progress", which are neutral, and which are outright bad. We need to have a goal in mind before setting about trying to achieve it.) I also think that utilitarian reformers like J.S. Mill and Peter Singer have had a pretty significant impact!
Related to this, curious to know what you think of Philip Kitcher’s idea (in The Ethical Project and Moral Progress) that we should do away with the search for an all-encompassing theory of morality and instead focus on how moral progress was made in the past and try to mimic it. He argues this on the grounds that high level theories of ethics haven’t had much of an effect in practice on how people and countries act.
Off the top of my head, I'd worry that this follows from the more general proposition that academics typically don't have much influence, and so isn't an indictment of ethical theory in particular.
It may well be a good idea to learn from the history of moral progress, but I guess I remain hopeful that moral theory will prove helpful in future even if it turns out it hasn't achieved much in the past. (E.g., I think it'll be important for helping us to identify what changes are "progress", which are neutral, and which are outright bad. We need to have a goal in mind before setting about trying to achieve it.) I also think that utilitarian reformers like J.S. Mill and Peter Singer have had a pretty significant impact!