History of the Idea of Progress

History of the Idea of Progress PDF Author: Robert Nisbet
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351515462
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
The idea of progress from the Enlightenment to postmodernism is still very much with us. In intellectual discourse, journals, popular magazines, and radio and talk shows, the debate between those who are "progressivists" and those who are "declinists" is as spirited as it was in the late seventeenth century. In History of the Idea of Progress, Robert Nisbet traces the idea of progress from its origins in Greek, Roman, and medieval civilizations to modern times. It is a masterful frame of reference for understanding the present world. Nisbet asserts there are two fundamental building blocks necessary to Western doctrines of human advancement: the idea of growth, and the idea of necessity. He sees Christianity as a key element in both secular and spiritual evolution, for it conveys all the ingredients of the modern idea of progress: the advancement of the human race in time, a single time frame for all the peoples and epochs of the past and present, the conception of time as linear, and the envisagement of the future as having a Utopian end. In his new introduction, Nisbet shows why the idea of progress remains of critical importance to studies of social evolution and natural history. He provides a contemporary basis for many disciplines, including sociology, economics, philosophy, religion, politics, and science. History of the Idea of Progress continues to be a major resource for scholars in all these areas.

History of the Idea of Progress

History of the Idea of Progress PDF Author: Robert Nisbet
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351515462
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Get Book

Book Description
The idea of progress from the Enlightenment to postmodernism is still very much with us. In intellectual discourse, journals, popular magazines, and radio and talk shows, the debate between those who are "progressivists" and those who are "declinists" is as spirited as it was in the late seventeenth century. In History of the Idea of Progress, Robert Nisbet traces the idea of progress from its origins in Greek, Roman, and medieval civilizations to modern times. It is a masterful frame of reference for understanding the present world. Nisbet asserts there are two fundamental building blocks necessary to Western doctrines of human advancement: the idea of growth, and the idea of necessity. He sees Christianity as a key element in both secular and spiritual evolution, for it conveys all the ingredients of the modern idea of progress: the advancement of the human race in time, a single time frame for all the peoples and epochs of the past and present, the conception of time as linear, and the envisagement of the future as having a Utopian end. In his new introduction, Nisbet shows why the idea of progress remains of critical importance to studies of social evolution and natural history. He provides a contemporary basis for many disciplines, including sociology, economics, philosophy, religion, politics, and science. History of the Idea of Progress continues to be a major resource for scholars in all these areas.

A Short History of Progress

A Short History of Progress PDF Author: Ronald Wright
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 0887847064
Category : Civilization
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Each time history repeats itself, so it's said, the price goes up. The twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population, consumption, and technology, placing a colossal load on all natural systems, especially earth, air, and water — the very elements of life. The most urgent questions of the twenty-first century are: where will this growth lead? can it be consolidated or sustained? and what kind of world is our present bequeathing to our future?In his #1 bestseller A Short History of Progress Ronald Wright argues that our modern predicament is as old as civilization, a 10,000-year experiment we have participated in but seldom controlled. Only by understanding the patterns of triumph and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age can we recognize the experiment's inherent dangers, and, with luck and wisdom, shape its outcome.

The Idea of Progress

The Idea of Progress PDF Author: Sidney Pollard
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description


A Short History of Man

A Short History of Man PDF Author: Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN: 1610165918
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
A Short History of Man: Progress and Decline represents nothing less than a sweeping revisionist history of mankind, in a concise and readable volume. Dr. Hans-Hermann Hoppe skillfully weaves history, sociology, ethics, and Misesian praxeology to present an alternative — and highly challenging — view of human economic development over the ages. As always, Dr. Hoppe addresses the fundamental questions as only he can. How do family and social bonds develop? Why is the concept of private property so vitally important to human flourishing? What made the leap from a Malthusian subsistence society to an industrial society possible? How did we devolve from aristocracy to monarchy to social democratic welfare states? And how did modern central governments become the all-powerful rulers over nearly every aspect of our lives? Dr. Hoppe examines and answers all of these often thorny questions without resorting to platitudes or bowdlerized history. This is Hoppe at his best: calmly and methodically skewering sacred cows.

Progress and Religion

Progress and Religion PDF Author: Christopher Dawson
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813218195
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Progress and Religion was perhaps the most influential of all Christopher Dawson's books, establishing him as an interpreter of history and a historian of ideas.

The Mainspring of Human Progress

The Mainspring of Human Progress PDF Author: Henry Grady Weaver
Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN: 1610164024
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description


History in Progress 1603-1901

History in Progress 1603-1901 PDF Author: Nichola Boughey
Publisher: Heinemann Secondary
ISBN: 9780435318949
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
History in Progress features clearly differentiated tasks that are designed to support and encourage the progression of pupils of all ability levels. A wealth of stimulating activities and accessible information will motivate your pupils and fill them with confidence, whilst building the key historical skills necessary for GCSE.

The Pricing of Progress

The Pricing of Progress PDF Author: Eli Cook
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674982541
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
How did Americans come to quantify their society’s well-being in units of money? In our GDP-run world, prices are the measure of not only goods and commodities but our environment, communities, nation, even self-worth. Eli Cook shows how, and why, we moderns lost sight of earlier social and moral metrics that did not put a price on everyday life.

A Short History of Progress

A Short History of Progress PDF Author: Ronald Wright
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
From Neanderthal man to the Sumerians to the Roman Empire, "A Short History of Progress" dissects the cyclical nature of humanity's development and demise, the 10,000-year-old experiment that people have unleashed but have yet to control.

Civilization and Progress

Civilization and Progress PDF Author: Radoslav A. Tsanoff
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813186668
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
Historical and systematic in its treatment, this work reviews the idea of progress in Western thought as it relates to civilization, in a more comprehensive survey than is to be found in previous writings on the subject. In the author's view, the history of civilization reveals an increasing range of human capacity, both for good and for evil, depending upon men's choice between contending values. From this standpoint, the work proceeds to the exploration of such fields of social activity as the evolution of the family, the emancipation of women, economic conditions and technology, intellectual and aesthetic values, moral and religious experience. Civilization and Progress is marked by balanced and judicious treatment, very broad learning, and a lucid and forceful style. The author asks us to consider the alternatives we face and to reflect on the choices which men have made in the past, which confront us in the present world crisis, and on which our destiny hangs in the future. Seminal in scholarship and creativity, this work will interest those concerned with the Western intellectual tradition and with the condition of mankind.