Is there moral progress throughout history?

[noname223]

I make them bold claim: YES there is. Though this does not mean it is a linear process without throwbacks. There certainly are. But if we compare the moral development being made since the last centuries I recognize a lot of progress.

I am also optimistic about the right-to-die in more and more countries. I think due to the demographics and the very high age people will reach there will be a new relation to caducity/transience. (never used these words before). Just imagine in most countries suicide was illegal and people got punished for trying it. For example with prison or torture. That is so cynical. I think in some countries this is still sadly a fact.

But there are also a lot of improvements for minority rights. Like the queer community. Some advantages are bitterly fought like the right for abortion. There will be setbacks. I don't deny that. But in the longrun I don't think people will be content with practices of the Middle Ages.

The psychiatry has made progress. I know many people are not happy with the psychiatry. But believe me it was even way worse in the past. Just read about therapy methods like lobotomy.

I don't pretend we would be close to perfection. By far we aren't. But the past centuries were really scary. A lot of torture even publicly. More violence. The way people raised their children. I know how damaging violence during childhood can be. I am glad that there is more and more education on that. Though it is too late for me personally.

Less people globally live in poverty, Though we could debate on that. Some people told me they think we in western countries reached the peak in the past. But in many countries people are able to escape poverty.

Something less controversial (in this forum). Antinatalism spreads more and more. I think many people here welcome that. I think the idea is more common in affluent and highly developed countries. It is true the population will rise but in the longrun I could imagine people will become more aware about the consequences of procreating.

People seem to become more secular. They learn that religions can have a polarizing and damaging effects on our societies.

I am running out of examples. And I am kind of tired. Maybe you have more ideas? Maybe or probably you also have a completely different stance on it.

 

[Julgran]

I make them bold claim: YES there is. Though this does not mean it is a linear process without throwbacks. There certainly are. But if we compare the moral development being made since the last centuries I recognize a lot of progress.

I am also optimistic about the right-to-die in more and more countries. I think due to the demographics and the very high age people will reach there will be a new relation to caducity/transience. (never used these words before). Just imagine in most countries suicide was illegal and people got punished for trying it. For example with prison or torture. That is so cynical. I think in some countries this is still sadly a fact.

But there are also a lot of improvements for minority rights. Like the queer community. Some advantages are bitterly fought like the right for abortion. There will be setbacks. I don't deny that. But in the longrun I don't think people will be content with practices of the Middle Ages.

The psychiatry has made progress. I know many people are not happy with the psychiatry. But believe me it was even way worse in the past. Just read about therapy methods like lobotomy.

I don't pretend we would be close to perfection. By far we aren't. But the past centuries were really scary. A lot of torture even publicly. More violence. The way people raised their children. I know how damaging violence during childhood can be. I am glad that there is more and more education on that. Though it is too late for me personally.

Less people globally live in poverty, Though we could debate on that. Some people told me they think we in western countries reached the peak in the past. But in many countries people are able to escape poverty.

Something less controversial (in this forum). Antinatalism spreads more and more. I think many people here welcome that. I think the idea is more common in affluent and highly developed countries. It is true the population will rise but in the longrun I could imagine people will become more aware about the consequences of procreating.

People seem to become more secular. They learn that religions can have a polarizing and damaging effects on our societies.

I am running out of examples. And I am kind of tired. Maybe you have more ideas? Maybe or probably you also have a completely different stance on it.

Some freedoms come with societal and/or social repercussions, which is usually why they are fought against - one such freedom is abortion. I'm not going into that whole debate here, but I just want to point out that whenever society progresses or rules are changed, society changes, and those changes come with their own repercussions.

Regarding those repercussions, we could take the need to work, as an example. What if we somehow ended up not having to work? On the one hand, we would have a lot more free time, but on the other hand, our mental health would probably not keep up, and we may even start killing each other out of boredom.

In general, though, I don't think that the construct that we call "society" is healthy. I'm personally not impressed with anything that has happened in the 20th or the 21st Century. We would probably be better off living in smaller tribes instead.

 

[Grav]

I don't see society itself as changing for the good through history. Technological improvements have replaced a lot of the more "primitive" aspects of life and we've learned that some practices were wrong. But saying we have evolved to become better humans living in a society I'd say no, and we've probably regressed. We, at least in the US, have a lot of shiny toys to distract us and we've become more insular and able to avoid having to deal with people, including caring for people. The desire/need for amoral actions of the past have been advanced out technologically so the situation doesn't come up, ex. securing food. If we had to fight off other people to keep our food supplies we would probably do very amoral things, but we have enough now and a way to get it so we don't resort to those methods. We know that a good bleeding isn't the best medical advice to give nowadays. Even social nets are to keep the most desperate of a society from getting so desperate that they see no downside to unrest, not done for some desire to lift people up and help them live less miserably.

Feeling very pessimistic today.