Philosophy Now Forum

Peter Stone thinks about a thought experiment about how ethics evolved.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/160/Philip_Pettit_and_The_Birth_of_Ethics

Philip Pettit has certainly made notable contributions in several areas of political philosophy -- his most recent book The State applies his "counterfactual genealogy" technique in a revision of the sovereignty theories of Bodin, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. But Philosophy Now readers searching for a more naturalistic approach to the evolution of morality should turn to Philip Kitcher's The Ethical Project, published nine years before The Birth of Ethics. In 2021 Kitcher expanded his Munich Lectures in Ethics into a volume titled Moral Progress, which applied his conceptual framework to three historical episodes of ethical change: the abolition of chattel slavery, the expansion of opportunities for women, and the increasing acceptance of gay love. I would be very interested to read an analysis of Kitcher's work in a future issue of Philosophy Now.