The project has established itself as one of the main centers of research on the topic of moral progress. It has brought together researchers from all over the world, thus significantly promoting and consolidating existing efforts to understand the nature of moral change, the criteria enabling the normative evaluation of such changes, and the institutional conditions required to sustain them. The project has already resulted in numerous publications by all its members, there are numerous scientific papers currently under review, incl. two book manuscripts (one scholarly monograph and one popular trade book that both address the nature of moral change).
The project succeeded in its aim to develop theoretical advances in our understanding of social change and moral progress. Its main goals were to develop an account of the mechanisms, institutions and psychological constraints for moral progress, adn the project has delivered numerous new ways in which philosophers should conceive of the normative and metaethical implications of moral progress. There has ben a burgeoning literature on the subject of moral progress ever since the inception of the project which PROGRESS has made a significant contribution to.
On the psychological constraints that bear on moral progress, the subject wanted to investigate the validity of evolutionary conservatism. Does our evolved mind impose limits on moral change? Here, the project has developed novel analyses of this question and proposed new solutions. On the one hand, there is a second underappreciated challenge from cumulative cultural evolution which seems to entail that moral progress is difficult to achieve because we don’t really understand how cultural practices work and what makes them function. The project has emphasized the role that social institutions can play in bypassing the limits of our evolved psychology. Secondly, there is a question whether moral reasoning and/or moral education plays a significant role in bringing about moral progress. Here, the project has developed an innovative and slightly skeptical answer.
On the metaethics of moral progress, the project has contributed innovative perspectives on the relationship between moral knowledge, moral understanding, moral agreement and moral progress. Publications:
Bodlović, P., and K. Kudlek. “Knowledge Versus Understanding: What Drives Moral Progress?” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. [open access]
Rehren, Paul, and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong. “How Stable Are Moral Judgments?” Review of Philosophy and Psychology 14: 1377–1403. [open access]
Blunden, Charlie, Paul Rehren, and Hanno Sauer. “Implicit Cognition, Dual Process Theory, and Moral Judgment.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Implicit Cognition, edited by J. Robert Thompson, 105–14. Routledge. [here]
On philosophical methodology and progress in the discipline of philosophy, the project has produced a series of highly visible papers on the relevance of historiography for philosophy. Publications:
Sauer, Hanno. (2022) “The End of History.” Inquiry, September, 1–25. [open access]
———. (2023)“The ends of history. A reply to Sauer.” Inquiry, March, 1–11. [open access]
Rehren, P., & Armbruster, T. (2025). Has philosophy become more ‘Scientific’? A citation analysis. Synthese, 205(1), 1-19.
On the problem of moral universalism, the project has made significant contributions to developing a novel perspective on moral disagreement:
Blunden, Charlie, and Benedict Lane. “Vindicating universalism: Pragmatic genealogy and moral progress.” European Journal of Philosophy, July, 1-20. [open access]
On the problem of norms and conventions:
Blunden, C. (2025). It's Only Natural! Moral Progress Through Denaturalization. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, 29(2).
The project has pioneered an institutional turn in thinking about moral progress. Publications:
Sauer, Hanno (2023) Moral Teleology. A Theory of Progress. Routledge. [open access]
The project has also produced novel innovations in bringing into dialogue theories of moral progress and economic growth. Publications:
Blunden, Ch (manuscript). Moral Prosperity. Currently in preparation for publication.
