Moral Progress in Dark Times

Preface to the English edition
 
Introduction
 
Chapter 1: What Values Are, and Why They Are Universal
 
The Good, the Bad and the Neutral: Basic Moral Rules
 
Moral Facts
 
The Limits of Free Speech: How Tolerant Is Democracy?
 
Morality Trumps Majority
 
Cultural Relativism: The Law of the Strongest
 
Boghossian and the Taliban
 
There Are No Judeo-Christian Values - And Why Islam Is Clearly Part of Germany
 
North Korea and the Nazi Machine
 
Value Pluralism and Value Nihilism
 
Nietzsche's Ghastly Confusion(s)
 
Chapter 2: Why There Are Moral Facts but Not Ethical Dilemmas
 
Universalism is not Eurocentrism
 
Ageism Towards Children and Other Moral Deficits in Everyday Life
 
Moral Tension
 
Susceptibility to Error, a Fictional Messiah and the Nonsense of Postmodern Arbitrariness
 
Moral Feelings
 
Doctors, Patients, Indian Police Officers
 
The Categorical Imperative as Social Glue
 
'A?' Don't Contradict Yourself!
 
Self-Evident Moral Truths and the Descriptive Problem of Ethics
 
Why the Federal Chancellor Is Not the Leader
 
The Day of Judgement, or, How We Can Recognize Moral Facts
 
With or Without God in the Kingdom of Ends
 
Beating Children Was Never Good, Not Even in 1880
 
Chapter 3: Social Identity - Why Racism, Xenophobia and Misogyny Are Evil
 
Habitus and Stereotypes: All Resources Are Scarce
 
Lifting the Veil of Dehumanization: From Identity Politics to Difference Politics
 
Coronavirus: Reality Strikes Back
 
A Different Side of Thuringia: In Jena, Racism Is Debunked
 
The Value of Truth (Without a Hall of Mirrors)
 
Stereotypes, Brexit and German Nationalism
 
The Effectiveness of Presumed Communities
 
The Society of Populism
 
The Contradictions of Left-Wing Identity Politics
 
Everyone

Markus Gabriel holds the chair for Epistemology, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy at the University of Bonn, and is also the Director of the International Center for Philosophy in Bonn and Academic Director at The New Institute in Hamburg.

"This book is a passionate defense of moral realism against the now standard relativism on the topic, written in Gabriel's usual clear prose. His gift for illuminating examples and anecdotes, combined with his thorough philosophical knowledge and hyper-alertness to world events, ensure that Moral Progress in Dark Times speaks directly to the conscience of the twenty-first-century citizen."
--Graham Harman
 
"In this book, Markus Gabriel seeks a possible resurrection of history from the normative foundations of a moral realism. In this search, we discover something like a non-Eurocentric universal history, based on the existence of universalizable moral facts capable of transcending specific contexts and guiding us through dark times. Aware of the challenges of this new universalism, Gabriel does not shy away from any controversy and invites us to a debate where the question is no less than the possibilities of a new enlightenment."
--Vladimir Safatle
 
"[T]he book's themes that morality is real and grounded in facts, that scientific-technological progress should be guided by ethics, and that this requires heavy-duty interdisciplinary cooperation (including a role for the humanities!) as well as a fundamental belief in truth and human dignity, are desperately needed in our current historical moment."
--Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
 
"What is so impressive about Gabriel's book is both its readability and that he is able to stand up for a form of European Enlightenment in German philosopher Immanuel Kant's universalism, which is needed now more than ever."
--The Sociological Review
 
"a challenging, provocative book"
--Midwest Book Review