Morally progressive social changes seem to have taken place with the onset of democratic governance, the abolition of slavery, the rise of gender equality, and other developments. This essay attempts to demonstrate that natural and objective moral facts are a plausible cause of some morally progressive social changes. Since this hypothesis is a version of naturalistic moral realism, I call it the Naturalist-Realist Hypothesis (NRH). To support the NRH, I argue that objective moral facts are natural facts pertaining to the impartial promotion of well-being within a population of agents facing a social dilemma. I then describe a mechanism to explain how natural and objective moral facts so construed may cause some morally progressive social changes. I suggest that the NRH is a credible hypothesis because it is compatible with empirical findings from research on the evolution of moral cognition and on the sociology of mass political movements.

中文翻译：

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道德事实如何导致道德进步

随着民主治理的开始、奴隶制的废除、性别平等的兴起以及其他发展，道德进步的社会变革似乎已经发生。本文试图证明自然和客观的道德事实是一些道德进步的社会变革的合理原因。由于这个假设是自然主义道德现实主义的一个版本，我称之为自然主义现实主义假设（NRH）。为了支持 NRH，我认为客观的道德事实是与在面临社会困境的代理人群体中公平促进福祉有关的自然事实。然后我描述了一种机制来解释这样解释的自然和客观的道德事实如何可能导致一些道德进步的社会变革。