Progress Unchained reinterprets the history of the idea of progress using parallels between evolutionary biology and changing views of human history. Early concepts of progress in both areas saw it as the ascent of a linear scale of development toward a final goal. The 'chain of being' defined a hierarchy of living things with humans at the head, while social thinkers interpreted history as a development toward a final paradise or utopia. Darwinism reconfigured biological progress as a 'tree of life' with multiple lines of advance not necessarily leading to humans, each driven by the rare innovations that generate entirely new functions. Popular writers such as H. G. Wells used a similar model to depict human progress, with competing technological innovations producing ever-more rapid changes in society. Bowler shows that as the idea of progress has become open-ended and unpredictable, a variety of alternative futures have been imagined.

Author: Peter J. Bowler
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 04/08/2021
Pages: 314
Weight: 1.3lbs
Size: 9.20h x 7.70w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781108842556


Review Citation(s):
Choice 01/01/2022

About the Author
Bowler, Peter J.: - Peter J. Bowler is Emeritus Professor of the School of History, Anthropology, Politics and Philosophy at Queen's University Belfast.