ABSTRACT
The idea of progress is closely linked with the idea of culture and tradition. It is impossible even to conceive of progress if there is no consolidated and robust cultural system. Both the image of the past and that of the possible future, as well as the conception of the developmental routes leading from the present to the future, can emerge only in the condition of stability and relative internalization of the cultural system. On the other hand, if the condition is one of the precariousness of culture, it is the present which is emphasized, while the past is only fairy tales and fantasies, and the future only an extended, extrapolated present. The crisis of the idea of progress is merely an indicator of the crisis of a culture. And this is doubly true with respect to modern culture which developed from the myth of progress.
