One point worth making is that any society would believe they had made moral progress over time, regardless of their history. If you had two societies, and one started at point A and moved to point B, and the other moved from B to A, both would feel they had made moral progress.
Not necessarily. If A was a Nash equilibrium while B was a Pareto improvement from that but the second society couldn’t coordinate to achieve it, then they could gaze wistfully into the past, say they had fallen, and be right to do so.
Yes, necessarily, if A and B are sets of moral values, not the degree to which they are attained. You’re interpreting A and B as, say, wealth or power distributions.
Presumably you are assuming that societies judge their values by their values, always coming to the answer “we’re good”. But societies can do better and worse at realising their values. Movoer, socieites can judge moral values by non moral values, for instance by consistency. (Yudkowsky’s habit, aparently copied by Bostrom, of refusing to distingusih moral value from non-moral value, causes problems, inasmuch as making the distinction solves problems).
I am not sure putting your values into practice counts as a moral value.
I think almost everybody makes a distinction between moral and nonmoral value. Stamp collectors value stamps, but don’t think societies with a greater supply of stamps are morally better.
One point worth making is that any society would believe they had made moral progress over time, regardless of their history. If you had two societies, and one started at point A and moved to point B, and the other moved from B to A, both would feel they had made moral progress.
Not necessarily. If A was a Nash equilibrium while B was a Pareto improvement from that but the second society couldn’t coordinate to achieve it, then they could gaze wistfully into the past, say they had fallen, and be right to do so.
Yes, necessarily, if A and B are sets of moral values, not the degree to which they are attained. You’re interpreting A and B as, say, wealth or power distributions.
Hmmm. Yes. But I don’t know that you would actually be able to find examples of A and B in real life.
Presumably you are assuming that societies judge their values by their values, always coming to the answer “we’re good”. But societies can do better and worse at realising their values. Movoer, socieites can judge moral values by non moral values, for instance by consistency. (Yudkowsky’s habit, aparently copied by Bostrom, of refusing to distingusih moral value from non-moral value, causes problems, inasmuch as making the distinction solves problems).
I am not sure putting your values into practice counts as a moral value.
When people talk about moral progress, I think they are rarely talking about better achieving their fixed values.
I think almost everybody makes a distinction between moral and nonmoral value. Stamp collectors value stamps, but don’t think societies with a greater supply of stamps are morally better.