Moral Progress

Moral Progress examines the challenge emotivism presents to contemporary ethicists. Focusing on the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre and Alfred North Whitehead, Lisa Bellantoni refutes MacIntyre's belief that a return to traditional values which once enjoyed broad social consensus will restore our moral center. She maintains that our enduring disputes over these values mark our moral progress, helping us to recreate values that will address contemporary situations. Contrasting MacIntyre's theory with Whitehead's, she concludes that in order to reinvigorate our moral inheritances we must endeavor not only to live well, but also to live better.