Societies change over time. Chattel slavery and foot-binding have been abolished, democracy has become increasingly widespread, gay rights have become established in some countries, and the animal rights movement continues to gain momentum. Do these changes count as moral progress? Is there such a thing? If so, how should we understand it? These questions have been receiving increasing attention from philosophers, psychologists, biologists, and sociologists in recent decades. This survey provides a systematic account of recent developments in the understanding of (...) moral progress. We outline the concept of moral progress and describe the different types of moral progress identified in the literature. We review the normative criteria that have been used in judging whether various developments count as morally progressive or not. We discuss the prospects of moral progress in the face of challenges that claim that moral progress is not psychologically possible for human beings, and we explore the metaethical implications of moral progress. (shrink)

Shame is frequently viewed as a destructive emotion; but it can also be understood in terms of change and growth. This essay highlights the problematic values that cause pervasive and frequent shame and the importance of resisting and changing these values. Using Confucian insights, I situate shame in an interactive process between the individual's values and that of their society, thus, being vulnerable to shame represents both one's connection to a community and an openness to others’ negative feedback. This process (...) provides an important arena where personal values interact with communal ones. The Confucian tradition, I argue, affords individuals a degree of autonomy in internalization through urging them to cultivate and maintain a keen sense of shame. My discussion also offers resources for understanding the various aspects of this interactive process—how individuals with similar experiences of shame may, through channeling their experiences, influence social values and propel moral progress. (shrink)

Abstract“The wrongness of Albert's action causally explains why Jane judged that his action was wrong”. This type of causal moral explanation has been extensively discussed in the recent metaethical literature. This paper motivates the following claims about this type of moral explanation. First, a typical defence of this type of moral explanation suggested in the literature does not work because it predicts inaccurate modal information. Second, focusing on different aspects of the ways moral judgements are generated provides better chances for (...) the defender of this type of moral explanation. Third, the strategy mentioned in the previous point leads us to the following alternative evaluative explanation: The property of being a harmful action explains a recognisable pattern of moral judgements observed in the relevant empirical studies. One crucial implication the paper alludes to is a localist approach to the debates concerning moral realism: We should consider each moral property's ontological genuineness separately, referring to specific empirical findings that are particularly relevant to the target moral property in question. Such a localist approach can provide solid resources for realists to respond to various anti‐realist challenges, such as an influential evolutionary debunking argument. (shrink)

The study considers the implementation of one of the top trends in modern society development – defending the role of morality in society and the value paradigm, the centre of which is increased attention to the formation of the value-semantic sphere of personality, which influences their worldview formation. Scientific research focuses on the moral values formation of the growing individual from the perspective of their worldview development, revealed by interaction with the world, specifically in interpersonal relationships and directly with themselves. (...) The essence and features of the moral values formation, in the context of interconnections and interdependence of components in the structure of an individual, are substantiated using the methods of analysis and synthesis, abstraction and concretization through the study of the scientific heritage of foreign and Ukrainian scientists. The article specifies moral values as a mechanism of human social behaviour that performs several functions in their life and affects the worldview and the formation of a personal worldview. Based on the generalization of the presented scientific array findings, the author’s concept of moral values formation in the worldview of the individual is modelled, it is presented as a diagram of the interdependence of three chain lines: 1) social morality – self-awareness – worldview; 2) values – world perception; 3) moral values – individual’s worldview. The algorithm for the studied phenomenon of an individual is seen in the moral education providing, which ensures the moral values formation in the structure of moral self-awareness and the development of the worldview of a growing personality. The individual’s worldview is determined by several factors: the system of moral knowledge and beliefs formed resulting from the acceptance of the acknowledged in society moral values that become personal; accumulated moral experience and striving for moral self-improvement. The findings outlined the issues of further scientific research, which will involve clarifying the state of students’ moral development in the educational process and the levels of their moral values formation as well. (shrink)