From rational self-interest to liberalism: a hole in Cofnas’s debunking explanation of moral progress

Michael Huemer argues that cross-cultural convergence toward liberal moral values is evidence of objective progress, and by extension, for realism. Nathan Cofnas claims to debunk Huemer’s argument contending can be better explained ‘two related non-truth-tracking processes’: self-interest its long-term tendency result in social conditions conducive greater empathy. This article although successfully debunks one influential form realism – Robust Moral Realism, which holds facts are non-natural, stance-independent normative Cofnas’s debunking broadly supports a second type realism: Enlightened Self-Interest the view reducible stance-dependent requirements instrumental (‘means-end’) rationality. Finally, this insofar as different Realist theories make specific predictions about intra- inter-personal mechanisms behind liberalism, empirical observations provide independent support Realism. I conclude an important mark favor Realism over