Prologue: Bending the moral arc -- The moral arc explained. Toward a science of morality -- The morality of war, terror, and deterrence -- Why science and reason are the drivers of moral progress -- Why religion is not the source of moral progress -- The moral arc applied. Slavery and a moral science of freedom -- A moral science of women's rights -- A moral science of gay rights -- A moral science of animal rights -- The moral arc amended. Moral regress and pathways to evil -- Moral freedom and responsibility -- Moral justice: retribution and restoration -- Protopia: the future of moral progress

"From Galileo and Newton to Thomas Hobbes and Martin Luther King, Jr., thinkers throughout history have consciously employed scientific techniques to better understand the non-physical world. The Age of Reason and the Enlightenment led theorists to apply scientific reasoning to the non-scientific disciplines of politics, economics, and moral philosophy. Instead of relying on the woodcuts of dissected bodies in old medical texts, physicians opened bodies themselves to see what was there; instead of divining truth through the authority of an ancient holy book or philosophical treatise, people began to explore the book of nature for themselves through travel and exploration; instead of the supernatural belief in the divine right of kings, people employed a natural belief in the right of democracy. In this provocative and compelling book, Shermer will explain how abstract reasoning, rationality, empiricism, skepticism--scientific ways of thinking--have profoundly changed the way we perceive morality and, indeed, move us ever closer to a more just world"--