The Idea of Progress

Syllabus | Introduction | Secondary Literature | Unit I | Unit II | Unit III | Unit IV

INTRODUCTION

The belief that the human condition is subject to progress, that people's current situation is better than that of their ancestors, and that future generations will enjoy yet better lives, is deeply rooted in the Western tradition. Inspired by material and intellectual improvements, it has encouraged movements of moral, social, and political reform, and provided consolation when those movements have fallen short of their goals. In 1921, the Cambridge historian J.B. Bury described progress as “a synthesis of the past and a prophecy of the future.”^[1] Bury's phrase is illuminating: the idea of progress justifies all that the human race has suffered as a contribution to the wellbeing it may yet enjoy.

Yet the date of Bury's remark indicates how tenuous this synthesis can be. Born in 1860, Bury lived to see the Victorian dream of a peaceful, prosperous, technologically advanced Europe buried in the trenches of the Western Front. For Bury, the horrors of World War I reopened questions that the Victorians believed to be settled. What if things are not getting better, but rather worse? What if progress is a comforting illusion that conceals man's fundamental misery? These questions were made more urgent by the crises and wars of the 1930s and 1940s. The First World War could be mourned as a tragic mistake. The next war was the product of such malevolent cruelty that it called into question the value of humanity. In 1949, Theodor Adorno declared, “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.”^[2] How much more savage would it be to speak of progress?

But the idea of progress was not extinguished by Europe's nightmare. In the United States, which was spared the worst horrors of the 20th century, it has provided both the name for a political movement and a justification for transformations of state and society. In 2007, artist Shepard Fairey created an original poster based on this theme for presidential candidate Barack Obama. The poster featured a social-realist style image of Obama over the legend PROGRESS, evoking both the storied past of the American Left and hopes for its future success.^[3]

Even in the United States, however, progress seems increasingly unbelievable. After more than a decade of war and years of economic stagnation, Americans now express unprecedented doubts about their country's prospects. According to a poll conducted after President Obama's 2014 State of the Union speech, more than six in ten Americans believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction.^[4] Another survey found that 46 percent of likely voters believe the country's best days lie behind it.^[5]

These data provide an occasion for philosophical and historical reflection as well as political debate. If we hope, as citizens, to assess the prospects and extent of progress in our own time, we must, as scholars, articulate the idea both in its conceptual dimensions and historical development. That is the purpose of this course. By investigating ideas of progress from ancient Greece and Palestine to the Christian era and American modernity, this course will equip students with the sources, vocabulary, and arguments they need to carry the debate about progress into the future. The focus is on the idea of progress in political and social thought.

Syllabus | Introduction | Secondary Literature | Unit I | Unit II | Unit III | Unit IV

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[1] J.B. Bury, The Idea of Progress: An Inquiry into Its Origin and Growth (London: Macmillan, 1921), 5.

[2] Theodor Adorno, Prisms (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983), 34.

[3] In deference to a request from the Obama campaign, Fairey changed the legend to HOPE. The campaign's request reflects the ambiguity and controversy that attend the idea of progress in American life.

[4] http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/27/22471530-nbc-news-poll-pessimism-defines-the-state-of-the-union?lite]

[5] http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/america _s_best_days]