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What Does It Mean To Be Skeptical Of The Modern Idea Of Progress

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Progress: Pro and Contra Final Take Home Essay Exam Due: Midnight, Sunday, June 11th Length: 1,000 words Please double-space, edit for clarity and concision. Please feel free to write in the 1st person (this is, after all YOUR intellectual journey), but ground your essay in course texts, lectures, and discussions. Please begin your final by re-reading the course description: Course Description What does it mean to be skeptical of the notion of progress? Where and when did we start believing in human progress and human perfectibility? Does progress imply that history has a particular direction? Is the idea of sustainability a viable alternative to the idea of progress? Much of our everyday thinking about politics, society, and even personal interactions depend on some concept of progress. This course challenges that basic assumption by engaging with thinkers who have cast the idea of progress into radical doubt. We ask where and when our modern idea of progress originated and …show more content…

I think with all of the course readings and viewings that I’ve done, I think that I will still maintain a belief in progress. I do think that skeptics of progress like Bourne, Grey, Popper, and Adorno have offered very convincing arguments against progress and I do think that their discontent with the way that people think/thought about progress is valid. However, I do believe that the rhetoric needs to be centered around progress, however disillusioned we may be. Fear or negativity is perhaps the strongest emotion utilized to compel people to do things, but it is hard, in my opinion, to use that to get people to improve knowledge, living conditions, etc. To end, I had a wonderful time in this class and have gathered so much from the insightful lectures and productive conversations in section that I will take with me into my everyday

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Consequently, many rich Americans believed in this view, and used it as an explanation of why some are poor and some are rich. Additionally, a similar view is expressed in Progress & Poverty, written by J.M Dent. (Doc. 11). In Progress & Poverty, Dent explains that an uneven distribution of wealth will aid social progress, because it will drive people to work harder, which in almost all cases, never worked, and only caused social unrest and strikes. Conversely, some politicians fought for workers’ rights and developed legislation in response.

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The thought of progress is a phenomenon that is unquestioned of why it is happening within the world. Progress is the notion that a certain subject or object is being brought into a greater or better outcome than it was set at its predetermined state. With the thought of progress, there is no telling whether progress happens because of a Devine being setting a predetermined fate for the human public or by reflecting on the past and learning from past occurrences. Throughout history of the world thus far, progress has been stationed through two factors. The two factors consist of Religion and REN (race, ethnicity, or nationality).

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