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"Moral progress" vs. the simple passage of time

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In Future-Proof Ethics, I talked about trying to "consistently [make] ethical decisions that look better, with hindsight after a great deal of moral progress, than what our peer-trained intuitions tell us to do." I cited Kwame Anthony Appiah's comment that "common-sense" ethics has endorsed horrible things in the past (such

In Future-Proof Ethics , I talked about trying to "consistently [make] ethical decisions that look better, with hindsight after a great deal of moral progress, than what our peer-trained intuitions tell us to do." I cited Kwame Anthony Appiah's comment that "common-sense" ethics has endorsed horrible things in the past (such as slavery and banning homosexuality), and his question of whether we, today, can do better by the standards of the future. A common objection to this piece was along the lines of: Who cares how future generations look back on me? They'll have lots of views that are differ

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