%0 Report
        %A Jetter, Michael
        %T On the Post-Enlightenment Evolution of Moral Universalism
        %D 2024
        %8 2024 Apr
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 16947
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16947
        %X Is humanity's circle of moral concern expanding, as often claimed? I explore frequencies of morally universal language in 15m book publications in American English, British English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian from 1800-2000. In each language, morally universal terminology diminished substantially. I then test two prominent hypotheses predicting moral universalism: reason and religion. Reason-based terminology correlates positively with morally universal and morally communal terminology, explaining seemingly contradictory observations of the 20th century. In contrast, communal terminology sub-sides when religious terminology becomes more frequent. These empirical patterns cast doubt on prominent claims of moral universalism expanding.
        %K moral expansiveness
%K moral universalism
%K Expanding Circle
%K reason
%K religion