What is progress? Types, forms, examples of progress. Achievements and contradictory progress

The idea of progressive development entered science as a secularized (secular) version of the faith of Christians in Providence. The image of the future in the biblical stories was an irreversible, predetermined and sacred process of development of people led by the divine will. However, the origins of this idea are found much earlier. Next, we will analyze what progress is, what is its purpose and significance.

First mentions

Before we say what progress is, we should give a brief historical description of the emergence and spread of this idea. In particular, in the ancient Greek philosophical tradition, there are arguments about the improvement of the existing socio-political structure that developed from the primitive community and family to the ancient polis, ie city-state (Aristotle "Politics", Plato "Laws"). A little later, during the Middle Ages, Bacon tried to apply the concept and concept of progress in the ideological area. In his opinion, knowledge accumulated over time is increasingly enriched and improved. Thus, each succeeding generation is able to see further and better than its predecessors.

What is progress?

This word has Latin roots and in translation means "success", "moving forward." Progress is a direction of progressive development. For this process, a transition to the higher from the lower, from less to more perfect, is characteristic. The progress of society is a global, world-historical phenomenon. This process involves the ascent of human associations from savagery, primitive states to the heights of civilization. This transition is based on political-legal, moral-ethical, scientific and technical achievements.

Main Components

We have already described what progress is and when we first began to talk about this concept. Further we will analyze its components. In the process of improvement, the following parties develop:

• Material. In this case, we are talking about the most complete satisfaction of the benefits of all people and the elimination of any technical limitations for this.
• The social component. Here we are talking about the process of bringing society closer to justice and freedom.
• Scientific. This component reflects the process of continuous, deepening and expanding knowledge of the surrounding world, its development in both micro- and macro-spheres; Liberation of knowledge from the borders of economic expediency.

New time

During this period, they began to see the driving forces of progress in natural science. G. Spencer expressed his point of view on the process. In his opinion, progress - both in nature and in society - was subject to the universal evolutionary principle: the ever-increasing complexity of internal functioning and organization. With the passage of time, the forms of progress began to be seen in literature, in general history. Did not remain without attention and art. In different civilizations there was a variety of social. Order, which, in turn, led to different types of progress. The so-called "ladder" was formed. At its top were the most developed and civilized societies of the West. Further on, at different stages there were other crops. The distribution depended on the level of development. There was a "Westernization" of the concept. As a result, such kinds of progress as "American centrism" and "eurocentrism" appeared.

The newest time

During this period, the decisive role was assigned to man. Weber stressed the tendency to rationalize the universal character in the management of various social processes. Durkheim gave other examples of progress. He spoke about the trend of social integration through "organic solidarity." It was based on the mutually complementary and mutually beneficial contribution of all participants in society.

Classical concept

The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is called the "triumph of the idea of development." At that time, the general certainty that scientific and technological progress could guarantee a continuous improvement in life was accompanied by a spirit of romantic optimism. In general, in the society there was a classical concept. It was an optimistic idea of the gradual liberation of mankind from fear and ignorance on the way to increasingly refined and high levels of civilization. The classical concept was based on the notion of linear irreversible time. Here, progress was positively characterized by the difference between the present and the future, or past and present.

Goals and objectives

It was assumed that the described movement will continue to continue not only in the present, but also in the future, despite random deviations. The belief in the fact that progress can be preserved at all stages, in every basic structure of the society, was widespread enough among the masses. As a result, everyone had to achieve full prosperity.

Main criteria

Among them most often met:

• Religious cultivation (J. Buce, Augustine).
• Increase in scientific knowledge (O. Comte, D. Vico, J. A. Condorcet).
• Equality and justice (K. Marx, T. Campanella, T. Moore).
• Expansion of individual freedom in conjunction with the development of morality (E. Durkheim, I. Kant).
• Urbanization, industrialization, improvement of technology (KA Saint-Simon).
• Domination over natural forces (G. Spencer).

Contradiction of progress

The first doubts about the correctness of the concept began to be expressed after the First World War. Contradiction of progress consisted in the emergence of ideas about negative side effects in the development of society. One of the very first with criticism was made by F. Tennis. He believed that social development from the traditional to the modern, industrial, not only did not improve, but, on the contrary, worsened the living conditions of people. The primary, immediate, personal social ties of the traditional interaction of people were replaced by indirect, impersonal, secondary, exclusively instrumental contacts inherent in the modern world. In this, according to Tenness, the main problem of progress was.

Increased criticism

After the Second World War, it became obvious to many that development in one sphere entails negative consequences in another. Industrialization, urbanization, scientific and technological progress were accompanied by environmental pollution. Which, in turn, provoked an ecological crisis. A new theory has emerged. The confidence that humanity needs continuous economic progress has been replaced by an alternative thought about "the limits of growth."

Forecast

Researchers have calculated that when the level of consumption of different countries approaches western standards, the planet may explode from environmental overload. The concept of the "golden billion," according to which a guaranteed existence on Earth can only be guaranteed by 1 billion people from wealthy states, completely undermined the main postulate on which the classical idea of progress was based-orienting toward a better future for all living without exception. The belief in the superiority of the direction of development that Western civilization was following, prevailing for an extended period of time, was replaced by disappointment.

Utopian vision

This thinking reflected very idealized ideas about the best society. According to this utopian thinking, it must be supposed that a powerful blow was also struck. The last of the attempts to realize this type of vision of the world was the world socialist system. At the same time, mankind does not have at its current stage projects that are "capable of mobilizing collective, universal action, capturing the human imagination" that could guide the society to a brighter future (this role was very effectively fulfilled by the ideas of socialism). Instead, today there are either simple extrapolations of existing trends, or catastrophic prophecies.

Reflections on the future

The development of ideas about forthcoming events is currently taking place in two directions. In the first case, determined pessimism is established, in which gloomy images of decline, destruction and degeneration are seen. Because of the disappointment in scientific and technical rationalism, mysticism and irrationalism began to spread. Reason and logic in this or that sphere are increasingly opposed by emotions, intuition, subconscious perception. According to the claims of radical postmodern theories, reliable criteria disappeared in modern culture, according to which the myth differed from reality, ugly from the beautiful, virtue from vice. All this indicates that the era of "higher freedom" has begun from morality, tradition, progress, in the end. In the second direction active searches of new concepts of development, capable to give people positive orientation for the forthcoming periods, to save mankind from unreasonable illusions are looked through. Postmodern ideas were, in the main, rejected development theory in the traditional version with finalism, fatalism and determinism. Most of them preferred other examples of progress - other probabilistic approaches to the development of society and culture. Some theorists (Buckley, Archer, Etzioni, Wallerstein, Nisbet) in their concepts interpret the idea as a possible chance of an improvement, which may, with a certain degree of probability, come or may not be noticed.

The principle of constructivism

From all the diversity of approaches, this concept served as the theoretical foundation for postmodernism. The task is to find the driving forces of progress in the everyday normal life of people. According to K. Lash, the solution to the puzzle is provided with the certainty that only thanks to the efforts of a person can there be improvements. Otherwise, the problem is simply unsolvable.

Alternative concepts

All of them, arising in the framework of the theory of activity, are very abstract. Alternative concepts appeal to "the person as a whole," not showing a particular interest in cultural and civilizational differences. In this case, in fact, a new type of social utopia is seen. It is a cybernetic simulation of social cultures of an ideal order, viewed through the prism of human activity. These concepts return positive guidelines, a certain belief in probable progressive development. Moreover, they call (albeit at a high theoretical level) sources and growth conditions. Meanwhile, alternative concepts do not answer the basic question: why does mankind, "free from" and "free for", in a number of cases, choose progress and seek "a new, active society," but often decadence and destruction serve as a guideline for it. , In turn, leads to stagnation and regression. Based on the theory of activity, it can hardly be argued that society needs progress. This is due to the fact that it is impossible to prove whether humanity will want to realize its creative ability in the future. There are no answers to these questions in cybernetics and system theory. However, they were analyzed in detail by religion and culture. In connection with this, as an alternative to constructivist modernism, the theory of progress can now be made by socio-cultural ethicocentrism.

Finally

Modern Russian philosophers are increasingly returning to the "Silver Age". Turning to this heritage, they try again to hear the originality of the rhythms of national culture, translate them into a scientific strict language. According to Panarin, the biomorphic structure of cognition shows man the image of the cosmos as a living, organic integrity. His space awakens in people a higher-order motivation incompatible with irresponsible consumer selfishness. Today it is clearly clear that modern social science requires a serious revision of existing basic principles, priorities and values. It can tell the person new directions, if he, in turn, finds in himself enough forces to use them.