Moral Progress in Dark Times

The challenges we face today are unprecedented, from the existential crisis of climate change to the global security threats posed by aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere. Add to this the crisis of liberal democracy and we seem to be swirling in a state of moral disarray, unsure whether there are any principles to which we can appeal today that would be anything other than particularistic.

In contrast to this view, Markus Gabriel puts forward the bold argument that there are guiding moral principles for human behaviour. These guiding principles extend across cultures; they are universally valid and form the source of universal values in the twenty-first century. In developing what he calls a New Moral Realism, Gabriel breathes fresh life into the idea that humanitys task on our planet is to enable moral progress through cooperation. It is only by achieving moral progress in a way that incorporates universal values and thus embraces all of humanity that we can avoid the abyss into which we will otherwise slide.

Written with verve, wit and imagination, Gabriel's call for a new enlightenment is a welcome antidote to the value relativism and nihilism of our times, and it lays out a moral framework within which we can work together as surely we must to deal with the great challenges we now face.

Markus Gabriel holds the chair for Epistemology, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy at the University of Bonn, and is also the Director of the International Center for Philosophy in Bonn and Academic Director at The New Institute in Hamburg.

Preface to the English edition

Introduction

Chapter 1: What Values Are, and Why They Are Universal

The Good, the Bad and the Neutral: Basic Moral Rules

Moral Facts

The Limits of Free Speech: How Tolerant Is Democracy?

Morality Trumps Majority

Cultural Relativism: The Law of the Strongest

Boghossian and the Taliban

There Are No Judeo-Christian Values - And Why Islam Is Clearly Part of Germany

North Korea and the Nazi Machine

Value Pluralism and Value Nihilism

Nietzsche's Ghastly Confusion(s)

Chapter 2: Why There Are Moral Facts but Not Ethical Dilemmas

Universalism is not Eurocentrism

Ageism Towards Children and Other Moral Deficits in Everyday Life

Moral Tension

Susceptibility to Error, a Fictional Messiah and the Nonsense of Postmodern Arbitrariness

Moral Feelings

Doctors, Patients, Indian Police Officers

The Categorical Imperative as Social Glue

'A?' Don't Contradict Yourself!

Self-Evident Moral Truths and the Descriptive Problem of Ethics

Why the Federal Chancellor Is Not the Leader

The Day of Judgement, or, How We Can Recognize Moral Facts

With or Without God in the Kingdom of Ends

Beating Children Was Never Good, Not Even in 1880

Chapter 3: Social Identity - Why Racism, Xenophobia and Misogyny Are Evil

Habitus and Stereotypes: All Resources Are Scarce

Lifting the Veil of Dehumanization: From Identity Politics to Difference Politics

Coronavirus: Reality Strikes Back

A Different Side of Thuringia: In Jena, Racism Is Debunked

The Value of Truth (Without a Hall of Mirrors)

Stereotypes, Brexit and German Nationalism

The Effectiveness of Presumed Communities

The Society of Populism

The Contradictions of Left-Wing Identity Politics

Everyone is the Other: From Identity Politics to Difference Politics (and Beyond)

Indifference Politics: On the Way to Colour-Blindness

Chapter 4: Moral Progress in the Twenty-First Century

Slavery and Sarrazin

(Supposedly) Different Conceptions of Humans Do Not Justify Anything, Least of All Slavery

Moral Progress and Regression in the Time of the Coronavirus

The Limits of Economism

Biological Universalism and the Viral Pandemic

For a Metaphysical Pandemic

Morality Altruism

Human Beings: Who We Are and Who We Want to Be

Ethics for Everyone

Epilogue

Glossary

Notes

Index