Co-director of the Cognition, Agency & Intelligence Center Co-author of Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change Philosophy of mind, cog sci, cultural evolution, moral psych, climate change https://tinyurl.com/y72qnp9v
![Even if someone was making moral gestures for purely selfish reasons, they might still have value. Philosophy professor Evan Westra, in “Virtue Signaling and Moral Progress,” argues that “widespread virtue signaling is not a social ill, and[...] can actually serve as an invaluable instrument for moral change, especially in cases where moral argument alone does not suffice[...] if a group of influential virtue signalers can be convinced that publicly committing to some new normative standard will increase their moral reputations, then they stand to play a valuable role in spreading that new norm throughout the broader population.” If we live in a society with slavery, for instance, then it may help the cause of abolition if people start seeing the rejection of slavery as a personal badge of honor. Even if they do so for the approval of their peers, if the norm they’re promoting is good, meaning the “virtue” being signaled is actually a virtue, it may help push us toward becoming a more virtuous society.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:au7d7h3jizx5q7uxinn5qp3m/bafkreifmglslhp5moa254ylpdjobh3jodbsvnj3ttoodgukmxwiyti7bn4)
Co-director of the Cognition, Agency & Intelligence Center Co-author of Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change Philosophy of mind, cog sci, cultural evolution, moral psych, climate change https://tinyurl.com/y72qnp9v