Pursuing Social Progress: The Question of Orientation

We all want to change the world for the better. But we face myriad complex questions, which together compose "the problem of social change." Among these is the question of orientation: Should our efforts to achieve social change be systematically oriented toward a long-term ideal? Should we instead focus on making piecemeal improvements without any definite long-term target in sight? Existing debates have revealed a basic trade-off: moving toward an ideal may require us to make short-term normative sacrifices, while steady piecemeal improvements may make it more difficult to realize an ideal. We introduce an analytical framework for structuring thought experiments that can provide traction on these issues, and present two implementations that provide baseline insights and motivate further research. We conclude with suggestions for extending our framework in ways that can yield insights that can guide our choice of orientation. (The appendix is available on Wiens's PhilPeople page under "Teaching Materials")