The question “to what extent did a specific moral philosopher cause moral progress/change?” (not the exact question you pose, but close) is an instance of the more general question “to what extent have individuals influenced history?” (e.g. Luther, Napoleon, Stalin). It could be useful to look at what people have written on that more general issue, both to generate priors, and to gain insights about various methodological and conceptual issues (which I suspect can be pretty tricky).
The Sentience Institute wrote a fantastic blog post on the question of how tractable is it for a small group of individuals to change the course of history.
Regarding “to what extent have individuals influenced history?”, I have found Great Founder Theory, valuable, but it doesn’t answer that exact question.
The question “to what extent did a specific moral philosopher cause moral progress/change?” (not the exact question you pose, but close) is an instance of the more general question “to what extent have individuals influenced history?” (e.g. Luther, Napoleon, Stalin). It could be useful to look at what people have written on that more general issue, both to generate priors, and to gain insights about various methodological and conceptual issues (which I suspect can be pretty tricky).
The Sentience Institute wrote a fantastic blog post on the question of how tractable is it for a small group of individuals to change the course of history.
Regarding “to what extent have individuals influenced history?”, I have found Great Founder Theory, valuable, but it doesn’t answer that exact question.