Good point, but still: does anyone know of any slippery slope [ETA: by which I mean a cascade of self-reinforcing changes in laws or social norms] that most everyone can agree was clearly not-bad? I ask because there are various theoretical reasons why one should almost never expect slippery slopes to have good consequences, but if empirically that’s not the case then I need to revise my sociological and historiographical models.
(ETA2: My bad, I confused levels of abstraction; I agree with the criticisms that such an analysis is unfeasible even if possible.)
Aren’t you smuggling in the conclusion? Incremental change that builds on previous changes is generally called a “slippery slope” only when the consequences are undesired. Is the gradual increase in homosexual rights good? Then it won’t be called a slippery slope.
More generally, there aren’t many changes that “most everyone can agree was clearly not-bad.” If everyone thought it would be a good idea, society wouldn’t have been doing things some other way.
This runs into the general problem of determining whether moral progress exists. Namely, after your morals change the change is always good as judged by your (new) morals.
Could you elaborate on these theoretical reasons? Because obviously the desirability of a slippery slope isn’t a relation between the slope and possible desirers, not a property of the slope as such, and it’s difficult to see what dynamics of slopes in action could be affected by the attitudinal relations of later persons towards them. Bad from the perspective of those who initiated them, perhaps?
Since history tends to ebb and flow even when it does have a secular direction, examples of self-reinforcing changes in laws or social norms can be found sloping in both directions across any dimension, so if e.g. you think that civil rights was bad, it is not hard to find periods and places where movements in the opposite direction had a self-reinforcing nature. So leaving aside very strong formalist conservatives who oppose changes in laws or social norms a priori, even if there are no slippery slopes that everyone considers good, I would expect that every person would be able to see at least one slippery slope that is by their lights good.
does anyone know of any slippery slope that most everyone can agree was clearly not-bad?
I doubt it, but because of the difficulty of citing any such social or political change, rather than because of some special property of slippery slopes.
As others have said, this seems like a confused question. The legalization of interracial marriage in the US would seem like the obvious example, but I don’t know what you want to count or not count as part of the trend. And I’m just guessing at how to interpret “most everyone”.
Seems to me that rationalism as a living ideal is a slippery slope with a positive outcome. Once someone takes the initial steps to use rationalism, they then seek to learn more about rationalism, they practice it more and they become more effective and efficient at utilising it.
That looks like a slippery slope to me, but obviously one that has a different outcome type than a traditional negative outcome orientated slippery slope.
Good point, but still: does anyone know of any slippery slope [ETA: by which I mean a cascade of self-reinforcing changes in laws or social norms] that most everyone can agree was clearly not-bad? I ask because there are various theoretical reasons why one should almost never expect slippery slopes to have good consequences, but if empirically that’s not the case then I need to revise my sociological and historiographical models.
(ETA2: My bad, I confused levels of abstraction; I agree with the criticisms that such an analysis is unfeasible even if possible.)
Aren’t you smuggling in the conclusion? Incremental change that builds on previous changes is generally called a “slippery slope” only when the consequences are undesired. Is the gradual increase in homosexual rights good? Then it won’t be called a slippery slope.
More generally, there aren’t many changes that “most everyone can agree was clearly not-bad.” If everyone thought it would be a good idea, society wouldn’t have been doing things some other way.
This runs into the general problem of determining whether moral progress exists. Namely, after your morals change the change is always good as judged by your (new) morals.
Could you elaborate on these theoretical reasons? Because obviously the desirability of a slippery slope isn’t a relation between the slope and possible desirers, not a property of the slope as such, and it’s difficult to see what dynamics of slopes in action could be affected by the attitudinal relations of later persons towards them. Bad from the perspective of those who initiated them, perhaps?
Since history tends to ebb and flow even when it does have a secular direction, examples of self-reinforcing changes in laws or social norms can be found sloping in both directions across any dimension, so if e.g. you think that civil rights was bad, it is not hard to find periods and places where movements in the opposite direction had a self-reinforcing nature. So leaving aside very strong formalist conservatives who oppose changes in laws or social norms a priori, even if there are no slippery slopes that everyone considers good, I would expect that every person would be able to see at least one slippery slope that is by their lights good.
I doubt it, but because of the difficulty of citing any such social or political change, rather than because of some special property of slippery slopes.
Edit: oops, didn’t see TimS beat me.
Going further back in history, you have the process by which the King of England lost power and Parliament gained it...
As others have said, this seems like a confused question. The legalization of interracial marriage in the US would seem like the obvious example, but I don’t know what you want to count or not count as part of the trend. And I’m just guessing at how to interpret “most everyone”.
reduced levels of violence in society? e.g. the reverse of this slippery slope
Seems to me that rationalism as a living ideal is a slippery slope with a positive outcome. Once someone takes the initial steps to use rationalism, they then seek to learn more about rationalism, they practice it more and they become more effective and efficient at utilising it. That looks like a slippery slope to me, but obviously one that has a different outcome type than a traditional negative outcome orientated slippery slope.