Paul Anthony Acourt

Progress, Utopia and The Intellectual Paul Anthony Acourt

The long-cherished idea of Progress, which was at the absolute centre of centuries of Western thought about a distinctively Modern history in an Age of Science, was in a parlous state as the 20th Century ended. Bizarrely, many intellectuals celebrated the 'Death of Progress', and disseminated to trusting students an expiation of collective guilt over the role of 'Progress' as a justification of brutal force, in a whole continuum of hubristic, Euro-Centric, colonialistic onslaughts around the globe. This book offers a passionate case for rescuing and reviving a very simple and indispensable understanding of Progress: More of The Good; and it urges everyone to employ this powerful concept, the quintessential signifier of Modernity, in our literally endless evaluations of the Good - an inescapable truly human enterprise. Pre-modern, traditional societies had no need to scrutinise and fret about their daily lives - every day slipped by much like those that preceded it, and most big questions about life itself were answered by religious powers or secular regimes. Modern science-inspired societies however are faced with a vacuum of reassurance about their actions and goals, without some examination of how much better life has become and to what extent it is on a road to even greater betterment - bluntly, the Modern self-interrogation is: If we are not progressing, why are we living ?