The quest for moral progress. Lessons from Diamond and Rorty

The article surveys and compares aspects of the moral work of Cora Diamond and Richard Rorty in order to build a feasible picture of moral progress hinged on the notions and activities of moral understanding and moral transformation. In particular, the Diamondian realistic spirit is coupled with Rortian ironic re-descriptions, showing how moral progress can be understood, after these authors, as a matter of deepening the notions we live by and transforming ourselves by means of new ones.