September 30th
"We're going backwards": The Possibility of Moral Regress"
Hagey Hall room 373
3:30pm -5pm
Pre-event
Social
2:30pm
-
3:30pm
HH/PAS
green
space
(outside)
coffee
and
sweets
provided
Philosophers offer abundant articulations of the concept of moral progress, including what moral progress is, and whether and how individuals and groups achieve it. There is far less philosophical literature focusing on the nature of moral regress. But real concerns that the well-being and the moral advances of a group or nation are going in the wrong direction are expressed often in popular culture. Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v Wade was met with the titular exclamation in much press coverage. I suggest moral regress merits more attention than it gets in philosophy. It is possible, it is threatening, and arguably, in some domains, it has recently happened. That ascertaining it is difficult, and that groups may disagree when one group's perception of regress is another's perception of progress, is perhaps all the more reason to develop more robust accounts as to what regress might be.