The Moral Foundations of Progress

Since I first read Stubborn Attachments in 2018, I’ve struggled with its foundational provocations. Has growth been good? Will it continue to be in the future? What if it kills us all first? Today, I’m finally prepared to share an article aimed at answering these questions.

The Moral Foundations of Progress is available here as a pdf.

This is the culmination of my thoughts on Progress Studies as an intellectual movement, and also on the budding institutions that surrounds it. Though I’ve previously written abstractly about the need for foundational assumptions, in this new piece, I actually argue for them.

In other words, don’t worry too much about “field-building”. Simply embark on a quest to rigorously answer important questions, and invite others to join in the adventure.

With that in mind, I hope my article will inspire work far beyond its relatively narrow scope. Work not only in research and writing, but in institution building, community organizing and movement towards applications.

If you would like to get involved in any capacity, you can find my contact details here. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks to Leopold Aschenbrenner, Basil Halperin, Alvaro de Menard, and Philip Trammell for their comments on an earlier draft.