Moral circle expansion
How do values change over time and can we create a more compassionate future?

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This profile is tailored towards students studying history, sociology and psychology, however we expect there to be valuable open research questions that could be pursued by students in other disciplines.

Why is this a pressing problem?

Many attempts at improving the world aim to expand humanity’s moral circle – the circle of sentient beings considered morally important. Movements such as anti-slavery, feminism, and animal rights all involve attempting to expand this circle. Understanding how moral circle expansion occurs, how tractable it is, and to what extent changes persist could be important for improving the welfare of a huge number of present and future beings. Many (plausibly) sentient beings are not considered morally important, or not sufficiently important to prevent great harm potentially occurring to them. Wild animals, insects, and future artificial intelligences are examples of beings whose suffering could be particularly overlooked.

Explore existing research

 

See also this blog post series on the tractability of changing the course of history, and this and this blog post for examples of informal debate about the value of working on moral circle expansion.

The Sentience Institute is a think tank researching long-term social and technological change, particularly moral circle expansion.

Find a thesis topic

If you’re interested in working on this research direction, below are some ideas on what would be valuable to explore further. If you want help refining your research ideas, apply for our coaching!

You could explore the topics and questions listed below from the Sentience Institute. If you’re interested in working on any of these questions, they encourage you to reach out, or apply for coaching and your coach can connect you.

 

You could also look into questions such as:

  • Over time, have people come to extend their concerns and caring to an ever broader range of groups (that is, have we seen a trend towards what philosophers cause moral circle expansion)? If so, what has caused these sorts of expansions of concern?
  • What has been the rate of change in values throughout history? Is the rate of change increasing?
  • What factors have tended to drive changes that we would judge as moral regression (e.g. an increase in repression).
  • What role (if any) has moral philosophy played in past moral changes? What role have social movements played? What role has been played by changes in underlying economic or political considerations?

You could explore the questions below from the Sentience Institute. If you’re interested in working on any of these questions, they encourage you to reach out, or apply for coaching and your coach can connect you.

 

Other research ideas are suggested in On the longtermist case for working on farmed animals from Rethink Priorities researcher Michael Aird.

If you’re interested in working on any of the questions in the Sentience Institute’s research agenda, they encourage you to reach out, or apply for coaching and we can connect you.

Further resources

If you’re interested in working on this research direction, apply for our coaching and we can connect you with researchers already working in this space, who can help you refine your research ideas.

You can also apply to join our community if you’re interested in peer connections with others working in this area.

Apply for our database of potential supervisors if you’re looking for formal supervision and take a look at our advice on finding a great supervisor for further ideas.

Our funding database can help you find potential sources of funding if you’re a PhD student interested in this research direction.

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If you’re interested in exploring how values change over time, you could also explore our profiles on historical persistence and contingency and the most important historical trends.

You could also explore our profiles on wild animal welfare and AI sentience, moral status and rights.

Contributors

This profile was last significantly 01/09/2022. Thanks to Matti Wilks and Thomas Moynihan for helpful feedback on this profile. All mistakes remain our own. Learn more about how we create our profiles.

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