ABSTRACT
At certain periods of history men have shown increased interest in the progress of their species, culture, or group. Usually these have been times of storm and stress in which old ideals were being challenged. Among the Greeks the interest in progress was stimulated by the introduction of new ideas from other cultures, and again by the threat of Persian conquest. Thus progress is the concern of Hesiod, whose father moved from the islands of the ÆEgean to the mainland when Greek culture was undergoing radical changes. Subsequently it is the concern of Plato, who has behind him the lessons of the Persian and the Peloponnesian wars, and about him the challenge of other systems of life unlike the Athenian. The interest in progress is reflected in the speculations of the Stoics, who orient themselves in the larger world of humanity and in that of physical nature, and are ambitious to be not merely citizens of a city but cosmopolitans in a world of men and in a universe of suns and planets. It is implicit as well as explicit in the thought of Lucretius, who seeks the rationale of life in a comprehensive scheme of evolution comprising matter and men, and it is a problem of the poets Virgil and Ovid. The interest in progress comes to the fore again when the Renaissance directs attention to the accomplishments of former centuries and men wonder whether contemporaries are capable of duplicating the achievements of the ancients. Interest in progress revives in the eighteenth century during the period preceding the French Revolution and in the days following the Revolutions of 1848. It waxes again at the close of the last and in the early years of the present century, particularly during the decade following the outbreak of the World War. The problem of progress remains one of the insistent questions of the present day and deserves a clearer answer than has yet been offered. Both external influences and changes within the culture focus attention upon the problem. An industrial revolution in England stimulated More to write the “Utopia,” and the Industrial Revolution of the last century and a half inspired many European writers whose works now interest alert Orientals who find their respective civilizations in the toils and coils of a comparable industrial revolution. 1
