Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
- Mortimer Adler's
- Syntopicon
Essays
Progress:
Editor's
1-minute essay
The great idea of Progress is a subset of the philosophy of history -- and one's
view of Progress will be linked to one's view of the nature of Man.
The field of "history" looks to the past.
The "philosophy of history" seeks, in its study of history, trends,
directions of movement, and flows of events; once determined, these are used to make
predictions about the future.
The idea of Progress relates to these predictions made by philosophers of history
-- Progress is one perspective held by these thinkers.
This science generally began only little more than 200 years ago; before then,
there seems to have been insufficient data about the past with which to make studied
projections of the future.
There are three broad views regarding Progress:
(1) Progress is inevitable: the ascent of
humankind is fixed according to forces in motion (held by Hegel).
(2) Progress is possible: success for Man is a
contingency subordinated to the choices he makes (held by Kant).
(3) Progress is illusory: an ancient,
pessimistic view. Advances for humankind are only apparent, not real; cyclical in nature
and subject to rise-and-fall (held by Lucretius).
Is there evidence of Progress?
The vast areas of science and technology, along with social reform and political
organization, offer the clearest evidence of humankind's march toward improvement.
However, when we ask about our collective growth in wisdom, in moral character, in
spiritual development, we are not as confident. Man's heart and soul display no ready
evidence toward increasing excellence.
Adler asserts,
- Man, as Man, is a constant in history. Progress, if it
exists, is found in human institutions only and not in Man himself.
What are some of the factors that affect Progress?
Bacon:
- The notion that any field of learning has attained its full
maturity seems to Bacon to be the presumption of those philosophers who, seeking "to
acquire the reputation of perfection for their own art," try to instill the
"belief that whatever has not yet been invented and understood can never be so
hereafter."
Whenever such belief prevails, learning languishes.
- "By far the greatest obstacle to the advancement of the
sciences, and the undertaking of any new attempt or departure, is to be found in men's despair
and the idea of impossibility."
And:
- "The reverence for antiquity and the authority of men
who have been esteemed great in philosophy have," according to Bacon, "retarded
men from advancing in science, and almost enchanted them."
Harvey agrees with Bacon that:
- philosophers or scientists should not "swear such fealty
to their mistress Antiquity, that they openly, and even in sight of all, deny and desert
their friend Truth."
Bacon, outdoing himself in perspicacity, continues. Commenting on those who call
themselves disciples of a long-departed Master, he sees
- no genuine method of science, but merely a cultivation of
opinion, in those who prepare themselves for discovery by first obtaining "a full
account of all that has been said on the subject by others."
Particularly the followers of Aristotle "would think themselves happy,"
he says, "if they had as much knowledge of nature as he had, even if this were on the
condition that they should never attain to any more.
- "They are like the ivy that never tries to mount above
the trees which give it support, and which often even descends again after it has reached
the summit; for it appears to me that such men also sink again--that is to say, somehow
render themselves more ignorant than they would have been had they abstained from study
altogether. For, not content with knowing all that is intelligibly explained in their
author, they wish in addition to find in him the solution of many difficulties of which he
says nothing, and in regard to which he possibly had no thought at all."
Is Progress real? If it is, will it continue?
Adler comments:
- "What we think about history depends on our basic view
of the nature and destiny of man, and our conception of man's relation to God, and the
causes at work in the human world as a whole."
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