What Is Progress

by Aldo Schiavone, Ann Goldstein (Translation)

Does the idea of progress still apply to our times? If so, what does progress really mean?

Today, many believe that progress is a word to be avoided, a relic from a past, the dangerous product of an era of intellectual naivety that would be best forgotten. Yet, the idea of progress is rooted in a human impulse that is both profound and essential, a way of interpreting history without which our ability to plan the future, our very identity would be at stake.

Written just before the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic—which is now putting its argument to the hardest of tests—this lucid essay explores how science and technology have been, and can still be, a powerful engine for human advancement. 

Genres: History, Philosophy

128 pages, ebook

Published July 13, 2021

About the author

Aldo Schiavone (1944) è uno degli storici italiani piú tradotti nel mondo: in inglese, francese, spagnolo, arabo, cinese. Ha insegnato nell'Università di Firenze, dove è stato preside della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza; nell'Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, di cui è stato fondatore e direttore; nella Scuola Normale Superiore. È membro dell'Institute for Advanced Study di Princeton e dell'American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tra i suoi libri pubblicati per Einaudi: Italiani senza Italia (1998), Ius. L'invenzione del diritto in Occidente (2005, 2017), Storia e destino (2007), Spartaco. Le armi e l'uomo (2011, 2016), Ponzio Pilato. Un enigma tra storia e memoria (2016, 2017), Eguaglianza (2019) e La storia spezzata. Roma antica e Occidente moderno (2020).

Reviews

[Madhab Dwibedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small atom bomb

[Monika · Rating 4 out of 5]

When reading between the lines, the recommended solution here seems to be the evolution of human species to make it feel responsiblity for its environment, therefore expanding the concept of humanism beyond the narrow rights of the individual. The method of evolution can and should be accelerated via technological means.