What would moral/âsocial progress actually look like?
This is a big and difficult question, but here are some pointers to relevant concepts and resources:
Moral circle expansion (MCE) - MCE is âthe attempt to expand the perceived boundaries of the category of moral patients.â For instance, this could involve increasing the moral concern in the wider public (or, more targeted, among societal decision-makers) for non-human animals or future people. Arguably, MCE could help reduce the risk of societies committing further atrocities like factory farming and also increase the resources spent on existential risk mitigation (as there is a greater concern for the welfare of future people).
Improving institutional decision-makingâthis covers a very broad range of interventions, including, for instance, voting reform. The case for it is that âImproving the quality of decision-making in important institutions could improve our ability to solve almost all other problems. It could also help societyâs ability to identify âunknown unknownsâ â problems we havenât even thought of yet â and to mitigate all global catastrophic risksâ.
Global priorities research (GPR) - arguably, a key priority for GPR is to provide answers to the above question. For instance, this might involve rigorously investigating the plausibility of longtermism in the light of objections (such as the epistemic objection).
The Possibility of an Ongoing Moral Catastropheâa very interesting paper arguing âfor believing that our society is unknowingly guilty of serious, large-scale wrongdoing.â. The paper ends by making two suggestions relevant to the above question: âThe article then discusses what our society should do in light of the likelihood that we are doing something seriously wrong: we should regard intellectual progress, of the sort that will allow us to find and correct our moral mistakes as soon as possible, as an urgent moral priority rather than as a mere luxury; and we should also consider it important to save resources and cultivate flexibility, so that when the time comes to change our policies we will be able to do so quickly and smoothly.â
Regarding your question:
This is a big and difficult question, but here are some pointers to relevant concepts and resources:
Moral circle expansion (MCE) - MCE is âthe attempt to expand the perceived boundaries of the category of moral patients.â For instance, this could involve increasing the moral concern in the wider public (or, more targeted, among societal decision-makers) for non-human animals or future people. Arguably, MCE could help reduce the risk of societies committing further atrocities like factory farming and also increase the resources spent on existential risk mitigation (as there is a greater concern for the welfare of future people).
Improving institutional decision-makingâthis covers a very broad range of interventions, including, for instance, voting reform. The case for it is that âImproving the quality of decision-making in important institutions could improve our ability to solve almost all other problems. It could also help societyâs ability to identify âunknown unknownsâ â problems we havenât even thought of yet â and to mitigate all global catastrophic risksâ.
See also this list of resources on differential progress (and in particular, Differential Intellectual Progress as a Positive-Sum Project)
Global priorities research (GPR) - arguably, a key priority for GPR is to provide answers to the above question. For instance, this might involve rigorously investigating the plausibility of longtermism in the light of objections (such as the epistemic objection).
The Possibility of an Ongoing Moral Catastropheâa very interesting paper arguing âfor believing that our society is unknowingly guilty of serious, large-scale wrongdoing.â. The paper ends by making two suggestions relevant to the above question: âThe article then discusses what our society should do in light of the likelihood that we are doing something seriously wrong: we should regard intellectual progress, of the sort that will allow us to find and correct our moral mistakes as soon as possible, as an urgent moral priority rather than as a mere luxury; and we should also consider it important to save resources and cultivate flexibility, so that when the time comes to change our policies we will be able to do so quickly and smoothly.â