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Anthropological Criteria for a Notion of Progress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Theodore Papadopoullos
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The idea of progress is essentially socio-historical. I mean by that that the idea and its meaningful content are the outcome of socio-historical processes in connection with the socio-cultural development of mankind, with which the idea of progress is inextricably linked. Before proceeding to any investigation of its nature it is necessary to dissociate its meaning from two fundamental concepts of modern natural and social science, evolution and change. Evolution is here taken in its strict biological connotation, not in its metaphysical implications. This point is made clear by Bradley who distinguishes between Darwinism as a theory of natural evolution and Darwinism as a metaphysics of existence. From the standpoint of the social universe, within which the idea of progress acquires its meaningfulness, natural evolution is not indeed indifferent, but amoral, and has to be accounted for as an external condition. The same applies to cosmic evolution or changes occurring within the physical universe. Although not indifferent to man, these are devoid of moral content and have to be taken as objectively given conditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 23 , Issue 91 , January 1975 , pp. 32 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 W.R. Inge, The Idea of Progress, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1920, p. 10.

2 Julian S. Huxley, Evolutionary Ethics, London, Oxford University Press, 1943, p. 7.

3 See W.R. Inge, The Price of Progress, London, University College, 1937, pp. 12-15.

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7 Fontenelle, op. cit., pp. 235-236.

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17 David Hume, "Of the populousness of ancient nations," in Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, edited by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, London, Longmans, 1875, vol. I, p. 382.

18 For instance, Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China. Vols. I-IV. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1954-1965; especially IV-3, XLV-LVII.

19 For instance, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Mythologiques, vols. I-IV. Paris, Plon, 1964-1971.

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31 See my Le droit international dans un contexte ethnohistorique, Wetteren, Cultura, 1965, pp. 6-58.,

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33 Paul Cesari, La valeur de la connaissance scientifique, Paris, Flammarion, 1960, p. 229.

34 Hume, op. cit., pp. 381-382.

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42 Auguste Comte, Système de politique positive, ou Traité de sociologie instituant la religion de l'humanité, Paris, 1851-54.

43 L.T. Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution, London, Chapman and Hall, 1915 (3rd edition), p. 30; Morris Ginsberg, "The Idea of Progress," in Evolution and Progress, London, William Heinemann, 1956, pp. 47-48.

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47 Louis Weber, Le rythme du progrès, Paris, Alcan, 1913.

48 Jean Poirier, Histoire de l'ethnologie, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, p. 120.

49 Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, London, Oxford University Press, 1939, vol. IV-VI.

50 Oswald Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes, Munich, C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1918-1922; Toynbee, op. cit.

51 Albert Schweitzer, The Decay and Restoration of Civilization, London, Adam and Charles Black, 1932 (2nd edition).