A PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION ON THE DISPARITY BETWEEN ADVANCEMENT IN HISTORY AND PROGRESS IN MORALITY

Abstract

It is common knowledge that we live in an era of “advanced civilization” with respect to scientific and technical progress, however, the phenomenon of barbaric violence and corruption that promote human misery makes one raise questions on the relationship between progress in history and morality.  Experience shows that progress in history does not correspond to progress in morality.  But what is the reason for the disparity and how can a harmony between the two be established?  The paper sees in Kant’s theory of history and moral progress plausible answer to these questions, showing that advances in civilization do not coincide with progress in morality because history has only a moral aim but not a moral end.  It is therefore by developing a civil society as the proper environment for the full development of man’s rational capacities that man’s natural world could be transformed into a moral world.  Where, however, the establishment of a civil society is hindered, it is the courage to follow independent thought that is the last resort for the emancipation of the entire citizenry.  The paper adopts descriptive and analytical methods and from its findings recommends some basic conditions that are to be fulfilled to ensure a balance between progress in history and morality.