Charlie Blunden
Universiteit Utrecht
Key past instances of moral progress, and perhaps some future progressive changes, rely on people coming to have more accurate beliefs about the extent to which their current institutions and social practices are “natural, necessary, and inevitable feature[s] of the social world” (Pleasants, 2010, p. 166). I call this account of how moral progress happens de-naturalisation. De-naturalisation has been discussed by philosophers of moral progress and moral change including Nigel Pleasants, Elizabeth Anderson, Julia Hermann, and Dale Jamieson. However, discussions thus far have often not delved into the detail of exactly how de-naturalisation is to be understood and how it works empirically. In my paper, I provide a more rigorous account of de-naturalisation than has thus far been provided in the literature, so that we can better assess its plausibility and its promise as a mechanism of progressive change. I first develop an interpretation of what it means to claim that practices and institutions are natural or necessary. Second, I draw on advances in the philosophy of conventionality to provide an account of the extent to which different institutions and practices can be natural or necessary in this sense. Thirdly, I provide a limited defence of the psychological realism of this account. With this more explicit and detailed account in hand, it is better possible to assess the empirical plausibility of de-naturalisation. In the final section, I assume the plausibility of my account in order to see what this account implies for the progressive potential of de-naturalisation. I argue that whether de-naturalisation will lead to moral progress in a particular case depends on the institutional alternatives that are available in that situation, the quality of the moral beliefs and values of the people who undergo de-naturalisation, and the inclusiveness of the group of people whose beliefs are improved by de-naturalisation.
Chair: Damiano Ranzenigo
Time: September 8th, 14:40-15:10
Location: SR 1.003
SOPhiA 2026 