Partly, I'd say so. Epistemology, yes, we owe much to the great strides we've made in scientific advancement. Ethically? I think that's a mixed bag. Advanced in some respects, regressed in others, mostly about the same.
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Originally, I thought we did. I guess I confused "getting better" as we've become better people rather than becoming better behaved.
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We've made moral progress in our societies. We used to think slavery was OK, now we don't. We used to think killing heretics was OK, now we don't. We used to think husband's beating wives was OK, now we don't. We used to think torture was OK, now we don't. Moral progress.
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I don't disagree that such is not progress, but having a better understanding of morality doesn't mean that you are a better person for it. If people *really* thought torture was okay, you could hardly say they were bad people for keeping slaves.
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It's definitely better now in these respects, but it can also be worse in some respects. I hate to bring it up, but it's a good example to say that abortion in the USA would be one big way in which a society has worsened morally.
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No, I think that is also a sign of moral progress.
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Okay, well, I do not think that, but you understand the point that it's possible to see things as a step backwards, yes?
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What he is saying is that we are not better people, it's that our position is better and that's why we do more good. That had our position been better 50 years ago we would have been doing just as much good as we are now. The change is not in us, but in our situation.
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I don't think anyone is claiming humans have changed. Our brains remain the same. Society has made moral progress.
End of conversation
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