ABSTRACT
The definition of progress has for a long time been determined by the type of development in favour in the industrialized countries: increased production of material goods, greater economic viability and productivity of men and machines, greater material well-being and security. However, the western countries are now showing signs of confusion and perplexity: the crisis has shaken their faith in development and in the pattern they had thought the societies of the future would follow, for these objectives now seem very distant.
