Progress is a term that is associated with a positive change where the main focus is the improvement and development of something specific, in the field of politics, for example, revolutions are considered progressive as happened with the French Revolution that eroded the conservative model that was maintained in the previous regime. The term progress in the English language is written ¨Progress¨ and among its synonyms are: advancement, promotion, advancement, improvement, improvement among others.
It can be said that, by nature the human being seeks or tends to focus on a certain time of maturity in his progress in life, although economic, social and political conditions tend to prevent it due to situations or circumstances. An example of this can be: the medieval obscurantism that impeded progress, good development and scientific advancement by not being able to differ the biblical scriptures.
What is progress
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Progress, as already limited, refers to everything that wants to be in the process of advancement, advancement, improvement, development, among others. The opposite of the term progress is the setback, delay, failure, specifically indicates the lack of success or negative result of a process that was executed, in order to improve the condition or status of something or someone.
It is believed that during the eighteenth century the concept of progress began to take shape in the heart of the Enlightenment, along with the encyclopedic yearnings and the praise of reason. Faced with faith and tradition, arcane darkness, the light of knowledge, the only lantern capable of illuminating a better future.
The idea of the progress of the 19th century indicates that humanity always tends towards the best thanks to reason. This improvement would be evident in science as well as in technique and morals. But in the 20th century, after two world wars, few are optimistic about progress. For the Frankfurt School, technical advances are always linked to a denial of critical thinking. So that progress, even if it could feed us all, would inevitably make us slaves.
It can be said that progress is the upward development, from the lower to the higher, from the simple to the complex. The idea of progress has always played an important role in the development of science, culture, etc., as well as in the struggle of the bourgeoisie against the feudal regime. After the victory of capitalism, bourgeois ideology engages in the struggle against the idea of progress, which is opposed by the theory of the eternal cyclical return of history, of the return to the primitive state, etc.
The ideologue of imperialism Spengler, launched the theory of the " decline of the West ", the rupture of culture. Today's bourgeois philosophy preaches the renunciation of today's progress, the theory of backward movement, of the inevitable catastrophe of human society, of the degeneration of man and, therefore, of the consequence. In reality, it is only the catastrophe of the capitalist world, because its collapse is inescapable.
The ideologues of the bourgeoisie want to assimilate the death of capitalism to the death of all humanity. In reality, the revolutionary replacement of capitalism by socialism constitutes an unprecedented progress of society, a gigantic leap for humanity. Opportunists and revisionists also falsify the notion of progress. They understand the term progress as a slow and gradual development, within the framework of the existing bourgeois regime. They disguise themselves with phrases about progress, their submission to bourgeois politics.
Only Marxism-Leninism offers a true scientific theory of progress. Marxism-Leninism is not content with verifying that society evolves or can progress, but it makes clear the real causes, especially the material causes, that determine the advancement of human history, its transition from one degree to another; it shows which is the type that moves society forward and which is the one that slows its progression. Socialism and communism open up unlimited perspectives to social progress, to the flourishing of the productive forces, of science, of art, of culture.
The main force that determines the upward development of society is the mode of production of material goods and the positive changes that are made in it.
It can be said that an individual with a progressive mindset is a person who opposes the conservative and reactionary forces of society that make it difficult for him to move forward. At the base of progress, as at the base of all development, is the struggle of opposites, the death of the old, the birth and the blossoming of the new - this is derived from what progresses.
Types of progress
Among the types of progress are:
Economic progress
A quick review of those elements that are part of the technical progress of nations, and in particular of industrial powers these days, are related to human ingenuity and creativity. These results are collected periodically, not perceptions, but through the registrations of patents, trademarks and industrial designs, in particular.
Social progress
Social progress in the sense of a gradual advance in social life with respect to those qualities to which the human being can rationally assign a value, is relatively recent in the history of mankind. The necessary conditions for its development began to appear only with the Renaissance, and culminated towards the end of the 19th century.
Social progress manifests the need of a population to satisfy its basic needs, create conditions for its development, improve and maintain its quality of life.
In other words, it refers to the accumulation of recorded history, the growth of the humanitarian spirit, and the new confidence in human reason achieved through advances in science and technology. However, the results of the First World War and the disasters that followed in the s. XX, dismissed the somewhat naive enthusiasm with the idea of social progress. Some authors, like Oswald Spengler.
Moral progress
There is a moment in the life of societies in which the term moral progress, which has so disturbed philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Marx, Nozick, Rawls), becomes inescapable, especially when in that society there has been a visible degeneration of the community fabric. Technological progress is perfectly identifiable (it becomes evident in the forms of production of such societies), but the identification of moral progress is more elusive, since it is related to cultural, religious, political and even customs aspects, which vary (sometimes radically) from one country to another.
Programming, for example, on Mexican television could be inadmissible on New Zealand television, to which its contents would certainly appear too violent. From New Zealand's perspective, Mexican television programming would be a moral setback, due to the high levels of violence it broadcasts, which are inappropriate for, above all, children's audiences. For the Mexican audience, however, this does not seem to be an ethical problem, since violence is normalized in the eyes of the viewer, who in many cases does not even detect it.
Scientific progress
It refers to the process of development and improvement of science, technology and with the achievement of discoveries and inventions that lead to the introduction of advanced methods and procedures in an indissoluble link with the historical progress of the development of human society.
There are two ways of looking at the use of the advances that are obtained with scientific and technical progress, from the capitalist orbit and from the social point of view.
Capitalism and the PCT
Capitalist relations of production subordinate the achievements of science and technology to increased profits and the consolidation of market dominance. The achievement of scientific achievements is not promoted or funded in ways that do not have an obvious immediate or future financial gain, although they constitute a social necessity, as is the case with some diseases. The social consequences of this approach are: economic and labor crises, accentuation of the intensification of work and a greater concentration of wealth in the hands of financial magnates.
Socialism and the PCT
Only in the socialist project, the means of production become a priority for all the people, since the scientific-technical revolution is put in function of the needs of the masses, in order to fully satisfy the material and spiritual needs of people in decent working and living conditions.
Cultural progress
Culture presents the transformation over time of symbolic elements of a society or a part of it. Culture is the development of customs, religions, values, laws, languages, technology, social organization, artifacts, transmission of knowledge, among others for the best adaptation to the environment.
The consideration of the inequality of cultures was largely successful thanks to its adaptation as a justifying ideology typical of a time when Europeans, those of Europe and the ruling classes of European origin of the new nations of America, were spreading its colonial rule for the rest of the world. In the late 19th century, the existence of inferior and superior races was a pervasive cultural problem, along with other now-discredited social theories such as eugenics and social Darwinism. However, from the first half of the 20th century, innovative anthropological approaches were opened, in particular the cultural relativism of Bronisław Malinowski and other authors of modern cultural anthropology (such as Marvin Harris).
What is modernity
Modernity is a historical period characterized by a set of ideas and profound changes in society, which is manifested specifically in the fields of philosophy, science, politics and art, in the various forms of life in general. Modernity clearly understands and represents one of the three great periods in which the history of mankind is divided into which they are found: the Ancient Age, the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, in addition to the Contemporary Age which is the one found Present.
Traditionally, modernity is associated with the idea of rupture, because the Renaissance represented a rupture with the dominant paradigms in the Middle Ages in terms of philosophy, politics, artistic, etc.
In modernity there are important changes in relation to the conception of the world for the human being: reason prevails over religion (Enlightenment, rationalism), myth ceases to be the explanation of the universe and begins to search for the causes of all phenomena through science. The human being happens to occupy the center of thought (anthropocentrism, humanism) that once belonged to God (theocentrism).
