The Idea of Progress

"We may believe in the doctrine of Progress or we may not, but in either case it is a matter of interest to examine the origins and trace the history of what is now, even should it ultimately prove to be no more than an idolum saeculi, the animating and controlling idea of western civilisation."_x000D_ Contents:_x000D_ Some Interpretations of Universal History: Bodin and Le Roy_x000D_ Utility the End of Knowledge: Bacon_x000D_ Cartesianism_x000D_ The Doctrine of Degeneration: the Ancients and Moderns_x000D_ The Progress of Knowledge: Fontenelle_x000D_ The General Progress of Man: Abbe De Saint-Pierre_x000D_ New Conceptions of History: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Turgot_x000D_ The Encyclopaedists and Economists_x000D_ Was Civilisation a Mistake? Rousseau, Chastellux_x000D_ The Year 2440_x000D_ The French Revolution: Condorcet_x000D_ The Theory of Progress in England_x000D_ German Speculations on Progress_x000D_ Currents of Thought in France After the Revolution_x000D_ The Search for a Law of Progress:_x000D_ «Progress» in the French Revolutionary Movement (1830-1851)_x000D_ Material Progress: the Exhibition of 1851_x000D_ Progress in the Light of Evolution_x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_