The Story of the Concept of Progress

A Short History of Progress Written by Mister Ronald Wright, talks about the progress and the issues of having too much change occur to a civilization, and how it can affect the outcome results of a healthy progressing community. He mentioned the ups and downs that occurred to some civilizations and how some triumphed while others did not. Which leads to the main dilemma Wright argues about, which is the current destruction of the environment around us. Over exploiting nature, over expanding, and overpopulating are problems that past societies have come across and is now occurring in our time. These things are what helped societies prosper during certain moments in history but they are now causing problems because we as people are abusing the

Chelsea Vowel's book "The Myth of Progress" (2016), explains that Canada has a long way to go to overcome the harmful and prevalent stereotypes about Indigenous people. The author supports this argument by discussing how the portrayal of Indigenous peoples in Canadian media has hardly changed over the last 200 years. Based on the language and subject matter, it's clear that the intended audience of this piece is Canadians both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

W.E.B Du Bois presents his experience of teaching at a school in the hills of Tennessee in his article Of the Meaning of Progress from a first-hand perspective. The vivid characterizations and descriptions about the students he taught, the environment he was in, and the image of the hill when he visited back many years after his teaching made this story touching and impressive. In Of the Meaning of Progress, Du Bois uses narrative to convey the injustice and the hardship African Americans had to suffered behind the illusion presented by the world of progress, motivating and advocating people to understand their situations and take actions to make the real progress that can bring equality. Narrative allows Du Bois to draw a lively image about

The movement toward the light contributed in complex ways to the late eighteenth century revolutions, their ideas led to independence from britain, leading eventually to the french occupation of the low countries The enlightenment was one factor in the birth of modern democratic and representative politics. (3). The political roots of the european enlightenment grew out of a profound revulsion against new political abuses that arose in the 1680s. Scientific and religious origins (15).Science presented new standards for arriving at the truth

Theme: The Scientific Revolution in the seventeenth century did not only change the human’s perception of the natural world, but also changed people’s way of thought. As a result of the scientific revolution, people began to use logic to establish social institutions and governments. The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that took place in the eighteenth century, in which reason, social reforms, and government advanced. Both, the Scientific Revolution and The Age of Enlightenment led to more secularism and individual freedom in Europe.

The term itself came from the word “progress” which means Americans were reacting to the problems by coming up with reforms instead of upholding status quo. Thus, whereas progressive era brought about a number of benefits,

The Progressive era was an age in time which people tried to solve Gilded Age problems through individual and group action. Progress in the word ‘progressive’ means towards freedom and justice. Progressives were “people who believed that the problems society faced (poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare) could best be addressed by providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace.” Progressives were mostly concerned with the social problems that revolved around industrial capitalists society.

The Age of Innovation- Throughout history there has been monumental discoveries in medicine, technology, science, and more. These innovations have improved communicating amoung people, expanding life spans across the globe, defending a nation. As we have progressed through the years we have learned from: Galileo discovering the Earth revolves around the sun (geocentric) going against the general belief of the Earth being the central point (heliocentric), Gutenburg inventing the printing press making it easier to communicate and spread the current news to the general public, and the atomic bombs were made to defend countries by destorying large populations. In the world wars there innovation with weapons creating a tragic number of deaths is why the first one was called the Great

Progressivism was the change development that kept running from the late nineteenth century through the main many years of the twentieth century, amid which driving savvy people and social reformers in the United States tried to address the financial, political, and social inquiries that had emerged with regards to the fast changes carried with the Industrial Revolution and the development of cutting edge private enterprise in America. The Progressives trusted that these progressions denoted the end of the old request and required the making of another request fitting for the new modern age.

Since the beginning of time people have been on an endless journey for “Progress”. But what does progress really mean? When I hear the word progress, I think of an improvement of a specific condition. Progress is advancing over a period of time and can have positive or negative effects of some sort. One significant event that led to great progress in human history was the discovery of America. The founding of America led to progress through the introduction of New World plants to the Old World, transmission of various diseases and colonization.

Progress, according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, means “the process of improving or developing something over a period of time”. Unfortunately, progress does not always develop something like it is stated in its definition. Progress tends to be a good thing for many individuals, but Ronald Wright argues otherwise.Wright makes the claim that progress may be a good thing at times, but too often we progress just because we can, and that’s when too much of a good thing can actually be bad for us. He also creates a rough outline for what it means to be a responsible citizen, and gives us ideas to consider as we figure out how to navigate what that means in a globalizing world.

The term, progress, is synonymous with phrases that denote moving forward, growth, and advancement. It seems unorthodox then that Ronald Wright asserts the world has fallen into a progress trap, a paradox to how progress is typically portrayed as it contradicts the conventional way life is viewed: as being a natural progression from the outdated and tried towards the new and improved. Wright posits that it is the world’s relentless creation of innovative methods that ironically contributes to the progress trap rather than to progress itself, the intended objective. Wright’s coinage of the term “progress trap” refers to the phenomenon of innovations that create new complications that are typically left without resolve which exacerbate

François Pierre Guillaume Guizot use the “ civilization” to define “the notion of progress or of development” (Guizot, 1-2) that means ideas people believe they can make improvement for greater advance. Guizot show civilization to show how difficult for the term “etymology of the word”(Guizot, 4-5) to find what make improvement for life progresses. Guizot explains that “ the progress of society” (Guizot 6-9) is to give the society higher improvement with connection of humankind. What makes most progress of civilizing society is having a great “manifest increase in the power and well-being of society at large”(Guizot 11-13). Guizot represents the civilization how evidence was given the both power

Modernity, it is a macro process of transition from traditional to modern society. “Formation of a modern political map of the world began in early 1800 in Western Europe and maybe characterized as the product of the twin revolutions.” European colonization of the New World, the economic and political development of new territories led to significant changes in the political map. Modernity it is a complex of multi-faceted process that took a place in Europe during the 18th century and had covered all aspects of society. The modernity of the production meant the industrialization - is constantly growing use of machines. In the social sphere modernization is closely linked with urbanization, an unprecedented growth of cities, which led to prevailing in the economic life of society. In the political sphere modernity meant the democracy of political structures, laying the preconditions for the formation of a civil society and rule of law. In the spiritual realm associated with secularization -: the release of all spheres of public and private life from the separation of religion and the church, their worldliness and intensive development of literacy, education, scientific knowledge. All of these are inextricably linked to each other processes of change emotional attitudes of man,

Throughout human history the quest for progress was always the center of every great civilization. The history of mankind and the conquest of energy are inseparable. First, the needs were modest: heating, cooking and perhaps illuminating. The energy was mainly related to the control of fire-. Then, developing societies were quickly forced to use other forms of energy. They were relied on human and animal power for construction, transport, travel, agriculture etc... The navigation is also an important step since, besides the human energy of the rowers, the use of the wind becomes essential for centuries. The mills are also used that energy as well. The mid-nineteenth century saw the advent and development of industrial civilization through the use of machines and the exploitation of new energy sources where vapor energy was first used then finally electricity provided by fossil fuels with coal and oil (later gas). Fossil fuel energies allow to design autonomous vehicles carrying their own source of energy (locomotives, automobiles and airplanes). During the twentieth century to our time, the growth of humanity energy needs is accelerating with an exponential rhythm. Electricity has become a must for many industries and our domestic uses. Fossil fuels are used heavily with the consequences we now know about global warming due to the emission of carbon dioxide when it is burned.