Progress!

Abstract

THE word “progress” primarily signifies “a stepping forwards” forwards not in relation to some real or imaginary goal the arrival at which we assume to be desirable, but merely in regard to the individual moving—in fact, a stepping “frontwards” as opposed to standing still or to stepping “backwards” In the course c4 the past few centuries it has, however, acquired a definite secondary limitation—that of the movement or development of human society towards a desirable goal—namely, earthly felicity, happiness, even perfection—or towards the attainment of perfect happiness in a future state of existence. The measure of “progress” thus necessarily has varied according to the conception of happiness—about which there have always been divergent opinions, and never an accepted definition. The philosophers of antiquity were pessimists: they did not entertain a belief in progress, but, on the contrary, held (with the notable exception of the Epicureans) that we are receding from a long-past golden age of happiness.