_Originally released February 2023._ In many ways, humanity seems to have become more humane and inclusive over time. While there’s still a lot of progress to be made, campaigns to give people of different genders, races, sexualities, ethnicities, beliefs, and abilities equal treatment and rights have had significant success.
It’s tempting to believe this was inevitable — that the arc of history “bends toward justice,” and that as humans get richer, we’ll make even more moral progress.
But today’s guest, Christopher Brown — a professor of history at Columbia University and specialist in the abolitionist movement and the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries — believes the story of how slavery became unacceptable suggests moral progress is far from inevitable.
In this episode:
• Rob's intro [00:00:00]
• Social history of slave traders and their descendants [00:01:56]
• Was abolitionism inevitable? [00:07:17]
• The history of slavery [00:13:02]
• Signs of antislavery sentiment before the 17th century [00:17:55]
• Quakers [00:30:16]
• Attitudes to slavery in other religions [00:42:26]
• Quaker advocacy [00:54:35]
• Inevitability and contingency [01:04:50]
• Moral revolution [01:15:12]
• The importance of specific individuals [01:28:01]
• Later stages of the antislavery movement [01:40:20]
• Economic theory of abolition [01:54:25]
• Influence of knowledge work and education [02:11:37]
• Moral foundations theory [02:20:19]
• Figuring out how contingent events are [02:32:36]
• Least bad argument for why abolition was inevitable [02:41:53]
• Were any major moral shifts inevitable? [02:47:30]
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The 80,000 Hours Podcast features unusually in-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them.
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