The direction of social progress. Examples of progress and regression

This is a peculiar type of development, in the process of which a transition is made to more complex, higher, perfect structures. This concept was not left alone by modern society, therefore, in the article we will consider the main criteria for social progress.

Social progress is...

Social progress is understood as the direction of development of society, which is characterized by irreversible changes taking place in all spheres of human life. As a result, society turns into a more perfect substance.

Progress has two main features. Firstly, this concept is relative, since it cannot be applied to such areas as art. Secondly, this process is very contradictory: what is favorable for one area of ​​activity may adversely affect another. For example, the development of industry has a negative impact on the ecology of the environment.

In sociology, the criteria for social progress are considered to be such concepts:

• Development of the human mind.
• Improvement of morality.
• Increasing the degree of freedom of the individual.
• Scientific and technical progress.
• Development of production.

Processes of social dynamics

A. Todd, in his book on theories of social progress, noted that this concept is so human that everyone thinks it in his own way. And yet there are four main ways of development of society. It is better to consider these criteria of social progress in the table.

subjectivity factor

Some philosophers and sociologists believe that the highest criterion of social progress is not a measure of an objective nature. They insist that the concept of progress has purely subjective characteristics, because its study directly depends on the criterion that the scientist is going to investigate. And he chooses this criterion according to his own scale of values ​​based on his views, sympathies, ideals.

By choosing one criterion, one can speak of significant progress, but it is worth choosing some other - and the decline of mankind is obvious.

But if you look, for example, at the criteria of social progress from the point of view of materialism, it becomes clear that there is a certain regularity in society that can be studied from the point of view of scientific point vision.

patterns

Due to nature-conditioned material production, the bulk of people strive for progress. It is in material production that one should look for the general criterion of social progress. It is quite simple to give an example: throughout the entire existence of mankind, various methods of production have developed and changed. This makes it possible to reveal patterns, considering the whole history as a natural-historical process.

Development of productive forces

Some researchers believe that the highest criterion of social progress is the process of development of productive forces. It lies in the constant change and improvement of technologies that provide a constant increase in productivity. In turn, the improvement of the means of labor leads to the improvement of the labor force. New equipment requires a person to develop new skills, and where there is progress in technology, science is also improved. At the same time, the human impact on environment, plus everything, the amount of surplus product increases and, as a result, the nature of consumption, lifestyle, way of life and culture of society inevitably change. This is the highest criterion of social progress.

A similar dialectic can be traced in the segment of the spiritual development of mankind. Each social relation gives rise to its own cultural form. Together with it, its own art and ideology arises, which cannot be subjected to arbitrary replacement. Another supreme criterion of social progress is the development of man himself. It is possible to talk about progress only when the society is not in a state of stagnation - "stagnant water". Thus, the basis and criteria for social progress are the mode of production and the social order determined by it.

Constituent elements

From the point of view of materialism, social progress consists of four main components:

1. The productive forces of society and the level of their development.
2. Production relations that have developed on the basis of productive forces functioning in society.
3. social structure that determines the political structure of the state.
4. The level of personality development.

It is worth noting that none of the signs can be an unconditional separate criterion of social progress. Social progress is the unity and development of all. Unfortunately, these areas can be scientifically substantiated only from the point of view of materialism, but this does not mean at all that such an integrative criterion as humanization or morality does not participate in progress.

Pyramid of progressive characteristics

To understand the importance and complexity of the process of social dynamics, it is worth explaining at least a few criteria for social progress. In a table, such information is perceived better.

In addition to these criteria, each of the thinkers of the past defended his point of view, considering the process of social progress. So, J. Condorcet said that the development of the human mind is important for society. Only enlightenment and the triumph of thought are capable of advancing social and social progress. insisted that progress is possible only where there is good legislation. If the law protects human rights, then the individual, feeling safe, is able to improve and improve the world around him. Saint-Simon and Owen noted that in a progressive society there should be no exploitation of one person by another, and Karl Marx zealously defended his idea of ​​the development of production.

Social development is a complex and multifaceted process that can be viewed from different points of view. Scientists say that in recent years, studies have shifted to the humanitarian side. But it is most correct to consider progress in the context of the production of goods and their distribution among social groups, because the highest criterion of social progress is precisely the symbiosis of these two concepts.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, CULTURE AND YOUTH POLICY OF THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC

KYRGYZ-RUSSIAN SLAVIC UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Economics

by subject "Philosophy"

"Criteria of Social Progress".

Fulfilled Art. gr. M1-06: Khashimov N.R.

Lecturer: Denisova O. G.

Bishkek - 2007

Introduction. ………………………………………………………………3

1. Social progress. Progress and regress. ……………..4

2. Social progress - idea and reality……………...8

3. Criteria for progress.

Criteria of social progress………………………..12

Conclusion…………………………………………………………..20

List of used literature…………………………….22

Introduction

The idea of ​​social progress is a product of modern times. This means that it was at this time that it took root in the minds of people and began to form their worldview, the idea of ​​the progressive, upward development of society. There was no such representation in antiquity. The ancient worldview, as is known, was of a cosmocentric nature. And this means that the man of antiquity was coordinated in relation to nature, the cosmos. Hellenic philosophy, as it were, inscribed a person in the cosmos, and the cosmos, in the view of ancient thinkers, was something abiding, eternal and beautiful in its orderliness. And man had to find his place in this eternal cosmos, and not in history. The ancient worldview was also characterized by the idea of ​​an eternal cycle - such a movement in which something, being created and destroyed, invariably returns to itself. The idea of ​​eternal return is deeply rooted in ancient philosophy; we find it in Heraclitus, Empedocles, and the Stoics. In general, the movement in a circle was considered in antiquity as ideally correct, perfect. It seemed to perfect ancient thinkers because it has no beginning and end and occurs in the same place, showing as it were immobility and eternity.

The idea of ​​social progress is established in the Age of Enlightenment. This era raises the mind, knowledge, science, human freedom to the shield and evaluates history from this angle, opposing itself to previous eras, where, in the opinion of the enlighteners, ignorance and despotism prevailed. The Enlighteners in a certain way understood the era of their time (as the era of "enlightenment"), its role and significance for man, and through the prism of the modernity understood in this way, they considered the past of mankind. The opposition of modernity, interpreted as the advent of the era of reason, to the past of mankind, contained, of course, a gap between the present and the past, but as soon as an attempt was made to restore the historical connection between them on the basis of reason and knowledge, the idea of ​​an upward movement in history immediately arose, about progress. The development and dissemination of knowledge was seen as a gradual and cumulative process. An indisputable model for such a reconstruction of the historical process was the accumulation of scientific knowledge that took place in modern times. The mental formation and development of the individual, the individual, also served as a model for them: being transferred to humanity as a whole, it gave the historical progress of the human mind. Thus, Condorcet, in his Sketch of a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, says that "this progress is subject to the same general laws that are observed in the development of our individual faculties ...".

The idea of ​​social progress is the idea of ​​history, more precisely, the world history of mankind*. This idea is designed to tie the story together, give it direction and meaning. But many Enlightenment thinkers, substantiating the idea of ​​progress, sought to consider it as a natural law, blurring to some extent the line between society and nature. The naturalistic interpretation of progress was their way of imparting to progress an objective character...

1. PUBLIC PROGRESS

Progress (from lat. progressus- forward movement) is such a direction of development, which is characterized by a transition from the lower to the higher, from the less perfect to the more perfect. The credit for putting forward the idea and developing the theory of social progress belongs to the philosophers of the second half of the 18th century, and the formation of capitalism and the maturation of European bourgeois revolutions served as the socio-economic basis for the very emergence of the idea of ​​social progress. By the way, both creators of the initial concepts of social progress - Turgot and Condorcet - were active public figures in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary France. And this is quite understandable: the idea of ​​social progress, the recognition of the fact that humanity as a whole, in the main, is moving forward, is an expression of the historical optimism inherent in progressive social forces.
Three characteristic features distinguished the original progressive concepts.

Firstly, it is idealism, i.e., an attempt to find the reasons for the progressive development of history in the spiritual beginning - in the infinite ability to improve the human intellect (the same Turgot and Condorcet) or in the spontaneous self-development of the absolute spirit (Hegel). Accordingly, the criterion of progress was also seen in the phenomena of a spiritual order, in the level of development of one or another form of social consciousness: science, morality, law, religion. By the way, progress was noted primarily in the field of scientific knowledge (F. Bacon, R. Descartes), and then the corresponding idea was extended to social relations in general.

Secondly, a significant shortcoming of many early conceptions of social progress was the non-dialectical consideration of social life. In such cases, social progress is understood as a smooth evolutionary development, without revolutionary leaps, without backward movements, as a continuous ascent in a straight line (O. Comte, G. Spencer).

Thirdly, the upward development in form was limited to the achievement of any one chosen social system. This rejection of the idea of ​​unlimited progress was very clearly reflected in Hegel's assertions. The pinnacle and completion of world progress he proclaimed the Christian-German world, asserting freedom and equality in their traditional interpretation.

These shortcomings were largely overcome in the Marxist understanding of the essence of social progress, which includes the recognition of its inconsistency and, in particular, the fact that one and the same phenomenon and even a stage of historical development as a whole can be both progressive in one respect and regressive. , reactive in another. This, as we have seen, is one of the possible options for the state to influence the development of the economy.

Consequently, speaking of the progressive development of mankind, we have in mind the main, main direction of the historical process as a whole, its resultant in relation to the main stages of development. Primitive communal system, slave-owning society, feudalism, capitalism, the era of socialized social relations in the formational section of history; primitive pre-civilization, agricultural, industrial and information-computer waves in its civilizational section are the main "blocks" of historical progress, although in some of its specific parameters the subsequent formation and stage of civilization may be inferior to the previous ones. So, in a number of areas of spiritual culture, feudal society was inferior to slave-owning, which served as the basis for the enlighteners of the 18th century. look at the Middle Ages as a simple "break" in the course of history, not paying attention to the great successes made during the Middle Ages: the expansion of the cultural area of ​​​​Europe, the formation of great viable nations there in proximity to each other, finally, the enormous technical successes of the XIV- 15th century and creation of prerequisites for the emergence of experimental natural science.

If you try in general view define causes social progress, then they will be the needs of man, which are the product and expression of his nature as a living and no less as a social being. As already noted in Chapter Two, these needs are diverse in nature, nature, duration of action, but in any case they determine the motives of human activity. In everyday life for thousands of years, people did not at all set their conscious goal to ensure social progress, and social progress itself is by no means some kind of idea (“program”) initially incorporated in the course of history, the implementation of which constitutes its innermost meaning. In the process of real life, people are driven by needs generated by their biological and social nature; and in the course of realizing their vital needs, people change the conditions of their existence and themselves, because each satisfied need gives rise to a new one, and its satisfaction, in turn, requires new actions, the consequence of which is the development of society.

As you know, society is in constant motion. Thinkers have long pondered the question: in what direction is it moving? Can this movement be likened to, for example, cyclical changes in nature: after summer comes autumn, then winter, spring and again summer? And so for thousands and thousands of years. Or, perhaps, the life of society is similar to the life of a living being: the organism that was born grows up, becomes mature, then grows old and dies? Does the direction of the development of society depend on the conscious activity of people?

Progress and regress

The direction of development, which is characterized by a transition from lower to higher, from less perfect to more perfect, is called in science progress(a word of Latin origin, meaning literally moving forward). The concept of progress is opposed to the concept regression. Regression is characterized by movement from higher to lower, degradation processes, return to obsolete forms and structures.

Which path is society following: the path of progress or regression? What the answer to this question will be depends on how people think about the future: does it bring a better life or does it bode well?

ancient greek poet Hesiod(VIII-VII centuries BC) wrote about five stages in the life of mankind. The first stage was the "golden age", when people lived easily and carelessly, the second - the "silver age", when morality and piety began to decline. So, sinking lower and lower, people found themselves in the "iron age", when evil and violence reign everywhere, justice is trampled on. It is probably not difficult for you to determine how Hesiod saw the path of mankind: progressive or regressive?

Unlike Hesiod, the ancient philosophers Plato and Aristotle viewed history as a cyclic cycle repeating the same stages.

The development of the idea of ​​historical progress is connected with the achievements of science, crafts, arts, and the revival of social life in the Renaissance. One of the first to put forward the theory of social progress was the French philosopher Anne Robert Turgot(1727-1781). His contemporary French philosopher-enlightener Jacques Antoine Condorcet(1743-1794) wrote that history presents a picture of continuous change, a picture of the progress of the human mind. Observation of this historical picture shows in the modifications of the human race, in its incessant renewal, in the infinity of ages the path that he followed, the steps that he took, striving for truth or happiness. Observations on what a person was and on

what it has now become will help us, wrote Condorcet, to find the means to ensure and hasten the new successes that its nature allows it to hope for.

So, Condorcet sees the historical process as a path of social progress, in the center of which is the upward development of the human mind. Hegel considered progress not only as a principle of reason, but also as a principle of world events. This belief in progress was also accepted by K-Marx, who believed that humanity was moving towards ever greater mastery of nature, the development of production and of man himself.

19th and 20th centuries were marked by turbulent events that gave new "information for reflection" about the progress and regression in the life of society. In the XX century. Sociological theories appeared that abandoned the optimistic view of the development of society, characteristic of the ideas of progress. Instead, they offer theories of cyclical circulation, pessimistic ideas of the "end of history", global environmental, energy and nuclear disasters. One of the points of view on the issue of progress was put forward by the philosopher and sociologist Karl Popper(born in 1902), who wrote: “If we think that history is progressing or that we are forced to progress, then we are making the same mistake as those who believe that history has a meaning that can be in it open, not attached to it. After all, to progress means to move towards a certain goal that exists for us as human beings. For history, this is impossible. Only we human individuals can progress, and we can do so by defending and strengthening those democratic institutions on which freedom, and with it progress, depends. We will achieve great success in this if we are more aware of the fact that progress depends on us, on our vigilance, on our efforts, on the clarity of our concept regarding our goals and the realistic choice of such goals.

2. Social progress - idea and reality

The degree of satisfaction with the social structure can be considered the most important sociological characteristic. But real customers are not interested in this characteristic of our society.

And what kind of social structure do citizens need? Here we have, especially in recent times, an unusual ambiguity.

The search for sustainable criteria for the conformity of the social structure with the aspirations of people, step by step, narrows the circle of possible solutions. There remains only a reductionist option - to find a natural scientific basis for the derivation of criteria for assessing the social structure.

Social self-organization is the result of the behavior of intelligent people. And the muscles of people are controlled by their brain. The most plausible model of how the brain works today is the idea of ​​a behavior-optimizing brain. The human brain selects the best next step from a set of possible options based on a prediction of the consequences.

The quality of predicting the consequences distinguishes reasonable behavior from unreasonable - human unreasonable or animal. The depth and volume of causal relationships considered by man are incommensurable with the capabilities of animals. How this separation came about is a separate question. Moreover, in the field of public relations, the justification of forecasts is poor.

From the idea of ​​biological species as self-organizing systems that compete in conditions of limited resources and are in a random stream of destructive external influences, the power spectrum of which is unlimited, and the frequency of occurrence decreases with increasing power, it follows that the target function of the optimization problem solved by the brain is to maximize the mass of matter, organized into species-specific structures. If a species enter into competition, then, other things being equal, the one whose brain deviates from maximizing the mass of the species will lose.

Man survived in biological competition, which means that the human brain initially maximized the mass of the "man" species.

The ability to predict the development of the situation led to a change in the objective function. A certain functional is maximized from the number and from the degree of protection from destructive external influences, the value of which increases with the growth of each of the arguments. Let's call this functionality the potential of humanity.

Decreasing with increasing depth in time, the reliability of the forecast is not controlled by a person, which often leads to obvious losses. This gives rise to two extreme positions in relation to the admissibility and usefulness of using a forecast when choosing the best one. next step. According to these positions in human society there are always two currents, two parties - "rationalists" and "traditionalists". "Rationalists" believe that (in a mild formulation) it is permissible to act on the basis of one's own forecast. "Traditionalists" argue that interfering with the "natural" (read "traditional") order is harmful. Convinced supporters of both positions can bring a sufficient number of historical facts to support their case.

The noted feature of human psychology generates at the level of human society a specific wave process "saw community development".

As a starting point for our consideration, let us take a socio-political crisis - a well-known state of human society.

The main goal achieved by the unification of people in social structures is the gain in the degree of protection from destructive external influences due to the socialization of part of their resources. Therefore, the main function of public structures is to ensure the efficient use of socialized resources. The organization of society must be adequate to the chosen way of using resources.

A socio-political crisis develops when a discrepancy between the organization of society and the method of using socialized resources preferred by a significant part of the people is discovered.

Over the past ten years, Russian society has been on the downward section of the "saw of social development." The efficiency of the use of socialized resources is low. There is an open competition of ideas. "What to do?" - the main question. The social weight of the "rationalists" is rising. So far there is no clear choice of society. And if none of the ideas gets a decisive advantage, then people will entrust control to a specific person - a leader, a leader. This is an emergency exit, fascism, protection from chaos, a hopeless war of each against each.

In the event that any of the proposals manages to get enough massive support, the crisis will begin to crawl along the chosen path. At this point, the idea that received support is based on a close and, most likely, accurate forecast of the development of the situation. For some time, it is possible to solve the inevitable minor problems. Confidence in the correctness of the chosen path is growing. The steering wheel is getting tighter and tighter. The immutability of his position is defended by many people. Societal structures are increasingly better suited to the chosen movement. With dissidents do not stand on ceremony. The society finds itself on the ascending section of the "saw".

With the distance from the crisis point of choosing an idea, the natural inaccuracy of the forecast begins to appear. Further more. The steering wheel is fixed. At the helm by this time are no longer those "rationalists"-practitioners who took the risk, deciding on the sin of implementing what they thought up, but officials, whose position in society rests on the immutability of the path.

Crisis phenomena are growing in society. This is the top of the "saw" tooth. The efficiency of the use of socialized resources is falling. "Stop experimenting on us!" - it becomes public opinion. This is where the "traditionalists" enter the political scene. They convincingly prove that the chosen path was wrong from the very beginning. Everything would be fine if people did not listen to these adventurers - "rationalists". Need to come back. But for some reason, not to the cave state, but one step of the "saw". "Traditionalists", with mass support, form the social structures of the transition period. "Rationalists" are rejected. And the crisis continues to grow, because the "traditionalists" are counting on the natural "recovery" of society, without reasonable intervention.

Society again finds itself on the falling part of the "saw of social development". Time passes. The sharpness of the emotions caused by the revelations of the deeds of the "rationalists" is being erased. Before people again there is a question: "What to do?" The cycle is repeated.

The proposed qualitative model describes the processes of social self-organization in societies of various populations. The specific dynamics of structures can be traced in the history of countries, corporations, small teams. The fundamental causes of structural change may be different, but the implementation of change is always mediated by intelligent human behavior. This mediation breaks the mechanical correspondence between the base and the superstructure. In the degree of satisfaction with the social structure, the most important role is played by people's assessment of the effectiveness of the use of socialized resources. This estimate depends on many factors and is drastic changes can occur without real significant changes in efficiency itself.

The initiators of competing versions of social order often declare their comparative "progressiveness". This quality, not having a clear definition, affects public opinion.

The ability to compare variants of a social structure according to their "progressiveness" implies a certain orderliness of these variants with the formation of a certain trajectory of the progressive movement of mankind towards a brighter future. Despite the historical experience, scientific forecasts, perspectives drawn by world religions, the idea of ​​world progress, generated by the technological achievements of the late 19th - mid-20th centuries, occupies important place in the ordinary minds of people, affects their assessments.

As a real filler of the concept of "progress", one can take the growth of the potential of mankind (functional from the number of people and the degree of their protection from destructive external influences) as a result of human activity. At the same time, two processes are going on in parallel: the growth of the potential of mankind and the growth of the probability of meeting with more and more powerful (and rarer) external influences of various nature. This competition with time in the minds of people is displayed as a contradiction between the assessment of the achieved potential and the idea of ​​the required level of potential.

In relation to the social structure, the definition of the quality "progressiveness" is not applicable. Here, only an assessment of the adequacy of the social structure to the chosen path of capacity building and the technological level of the economy has a basis. And this adequacy does not at all imply an unambiguous correspondence.

The social structure should support (at least not slow down) people's capacity building activities. People's assessment of its satisfaction can be based on this requirement.

3. Progress Criteria

mind. moral Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling(1775-1854) wrote that the solution to the question of historical progress is complicated by the fact that supporters and opponents of the belief in the perfection of mankind are completely entangled in disputes about the criteria of progress. Some talk about the progress of mankind in the field morality, others are about progress science and technology, legal device.

Another point of view on social progress belongs to G. Hegel. He saw the criterion of progress in consciousnessfreedom.

In our time, philosophers also hold different views on the criterion of social progress. Let's consider some of them.

One of the current points of view is that the highest and universal objective criterion of social progress is development of productive forces, includingthe development of man himself. It is argued that the direction of the historical process is due to the growth and improvement of the productive forces of society, including the means of labor, the degree to which man masters the forces of nature, the possibility of using them as the basis of human life. The origins of all human activity lie in social production. According to this criterion, those public relations are recognized as progressive, which correspond to the level of the productive forces and open up the greatest scope for their development, for the growth of labor productivity, for the development of man. Man is considered here as the main thing in the productive forces, therefore their development is understood from this point of view and as the development of the wealth of human nature.

This position is criticized from a different point of view. Just as it is impossible to find a universal criterion of progress only in social consciousness (in the development of reason, morality, consciousness of freedom), so it is impossible to find it only in the sphere of material production (technology, economic relations). History has given examples of countries where a high level of material production was combined with the degradation of spiritual culture. In order to overcome the one-sidedness of the criteria that reflect the state of only one sphere of social life, it is necessary to find a concept that would characterize the essence of human life and activity. In this capacity, philosophers propose the concept freedom.

Freedom, as you already know, is characterized not only by knowledge (the absence of which makes a person subjectively not free), but also by the presence of conditions for its realization. It also requires a decision based on free choice. Finally, funds are also required, as well as actions aimed at implementing decision. We also recall that the freedom of one person should not be achieved by infringing on the freedom of another person. Such restriction of freedom has a social and moral character.

The meaning of human life lies in self-realization, self-realization of the individual. So here it is freedom acts as a necessary condition for self-realization. In fact, self-realization is possible if a person has knowledge about his abilities, the opportunities that society gives him, about the ways of activity in which he can realize himself. The wider the opportunities created by society, the freer the person, the more options for activities in which his potential will be revealed. But in the process of multifaceted activity, there is also a multilateral development of the person himself, the spiritual wealth of the individual grows.

So, according to this point of view, criterion of socialprogress is a measure of the freedom that a society consists ofto provide the individual with a degree guaranteed by societyindividual freedom. disclosure his truly human qualities - intellectual, creative, moral. This statement brings us to another view of social progress.

As we have seen, one cannot confine oneself to characterizing man as an active being. He is also a rational and social being. Only with this in mind can we talk about the human in a person, about humanity. But the development of human qualities depends on the conditions of people's lives. The more fully the various needs of a person in food, clothing, housing, transport services, his requests in the spiritual field are satisfied, the more moral relations between people become, the more accessible for a person are the most diverse different types economic and political, spiritual and material activities. The more favorable the conditions for the development of the physical, intellectual, mental forces of a person, his moral principles, the wider the scope for the development of individual qualities inherent in each individual person. In short, the more humane the conditions of life, the more opportunities for the development of the human in a person: reason, morality, creative forces.

Humanity, the recognition of man as the highest value, is expressed by the word "humanism". From the foregoing, we can conclude that there is a universal criterion for social progress: aboutwhat is aggressive is that which contributes to the elevation of humanism.

Criteria of social progress.

In the extensive literature on social progress, there is currently no single answer to the main question: what is the general sociological criterion of social progress?

A relatively small number of authors argue that the very formulation of the question of a single criterion of social progress is meaningless, since human society is a complex organism, the development of which is carried out along different lines, which makes it impossible to formulate a single criterion. The majority of authors consider it possible to formulate a single general sociological criterion of social progress. However, already in the very formulation of such a criterion, there are significant discrepancies.

Condorcet (like other French Enlighteners) considered the criterion of progress to be development mind. Utopian socialists put forward moral progress criterion. Saint-Simon believed, for example, that society should adopt a form of organization that would lead to the implementation of the moral principle that all people should treat each other as brothers. A contemporary of the utopian socialists, a German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling(1775-1854) wrote that the solution of the question of historical progress is complicated by the fact that supporters and opponents of faith in the perfection of mankind are completely confused in disputes about the criteria of progress. Some talk about the progress of mankind in the field morality, others are about progress science and technology, which, as Schelling wrote, from a historical point of view, is rather a regression, and offered his own solution to the problem: the criterion in establishing the historical progress of the human race can only be a gradual approach to legal device. Another point of view on social progress belongs to G. Hegel. He saw the criterion of progress in consciousness of freedom. As the consciousness of freedom grows, the progressive development of society takes place.

As you can see, the question of the criterion of progress occupied the great minds of modern times, but did not find a solution. The disadvantage of all attempts to overcome this problem was that in all cases only one line (or one side, or one sphere) of social development was considered as a criterion. And reason, and morality, and science, and technology, and the legal order, and the consciousness of freedom - all these indicators are very important, but not universal, not covering the life of a person and society as a whole.

The dominant idea of ​​infinite progress inevitably led to what seemed to be the only possible solution question; the main, if not the only, criterion of social progress can only be the development of material production, which, in the final analysis, predetermines the change in all other aspects and spheres of social life. Among Marxists, V. I. Lenin insisted on this conclusion more than once, who as early as 1908 called for considering the interests of the development of productive forces as the highest criterion of progress. After October, Lenin returned to this definition and emphasized that the state of the productive forces is the main criterion for all social development, since each subsequent socio-economic formation finally defeated the previous one precisely because it opened up more scope for the development of productive forces, achieved a higher productivity of social labor. .

A serious argument in favor of this position is that the very history of mankind begins with the manufacture of tools and exists due to continuity in the development of productive forces.

It is noteworthy that the conclusion about the state and level of development of the productive forces as the general criterion of progress was shared by the opponents of Marxism - the technists, on the one hand, and the scientists, on the other. A legitimate question arises: how could the concepts of Marxism (i.e., materialism) and scientism (i.e., idealism) converge at one point? The logic of this convergence is as follows. The scientist discovers social progress, first of all, in the development of scientific knowledge, but after all, scientific knowledge acquires the highest meaning only when it is realized in practice, and above all in material production.

In the process of the ideological confrontation between the two systems, which is still only fading into the past, the technologists used the thesis about the productive forces as the general criterion of social progress to prove the superiority of the West, which was and is going ahead in this indicator. The disadvantage of this criterion is that the evaluation of the productive forces involves taking into account their number, nature, the level of development achieved and the productivity of labor associated with it, the ability to grow, which is very important when comparing different countries and stages of historical development. For example, the number of production forces in modern India is greater than in South Korea, and their quality is lower.

If we take the development of productive forces as the criterion of progress; evaluating them in dynamics, then this presupposes a comparison not from the point of view of the greater or lesser development of the productive forces, but from the point of view of the course, the speed of their development. But in this case, the question arises, which period should be taken for comparison.

Some philosophers believe that all difficulties will be overcome if we take the mode of production of material goods as a general sociological criterion of social progress. A strong argument in favor of such a position is that the foundation of social progress is the development of a way
production as a whole, that by taking into account the state and growth of productive forces, as well as the nature of production relations, it is possible to show much more fully the progressive nature of one formation in relation to another.

Far from denying that the transition from one mode of production to another, more progressive, underlies progress in a number of other areas, opponents of the point of view under consideration almost always note that the main question remains unresolved: how to determine the very progressiveness of this new production method.

Rightly believing that human society is, first of all, a developing community of people, another group of philosophers puts forward the development of man himself as a general sociological criterion of social progress. It is indisputable that the course of human history really testifies to the development of people who make up human society, their social and individual strengths, abilities, and inclinations. The advantage of this approach is that it allows measuring social progress by the progressive development of the very subjects of historical creativity - people.

The most important criterion of progress is the level of humanism of the society, i.e. the position of the individual in it: the degree of its economic, political and social liberation; the level of satisfaction of its material and spiritual needs; the state of her psychophysical and social health. According to this point of view, the criterion of social progress is the measure of freedom that society is able to grant to the individual, the degree of individual freedom guaranteed by society. The free development of man in a free society also means disclosure his truly human qualities - intellectual, creative, moral. The development of human qualities depends on the living conditions of people. The more fully the various needs of a person in food, clothing, housing, transport services, his requests in the spiritual field are satisfied, the more moral relations between people become, the more accessible for a person are the most diverse types of economic and political, spiritual and material activities. The more favorable the conditions for the development of the physical, intellectual, mental forces of a person, his moral principles, the wider the scope for the development of individual qualities inherent in each individual person. In short, the more humane the conditions of life, the more opportunities for the development of the human in a person: reason, morality, creative forces.

Let us note, by the way, that within this indicator, which is complex in its structure, one can and should be singled out, which, in fact, combines all the others. Such, in my opinion, is average duration life. And if it in this country is 10-12 years less than in the group developed countries, and besides, it shows a tendency to a further decrease, the question of the degree of progressiveness of this country should be resolved accordingly. For, as one of the famous poets said, "all progress is reactionary if a person collapses."

The level of society's humanism as an integrative (ie, passing through and absorbing changes literally in all spheres of society's life) criterion incorporates the criteria discussed above. Each subsequent formational and civilizational stage is more progressive in terms of personality - it expands the range of rights and freedoms of the individual, entails the development of his needs and the improvement of his abilities. It suffices to compare in this respect the status of a slave and a serf, a serf and a wage worker under capitalism. At first, it may seem that the slave-owning formation, which marked the beginning of the era of exploitation of man by man, stands apart in this respect. But, as F. Engels explained, even for a slave, not to mention the free ones, slavery was a personal progress: if before the prisoner was killed or eaten, now he was left to live.

So, the content of social progress was, is and will be the "humanization of man", achieved through the contradictory development of his natural and social forces, that is, the productive forces and the whole range of social relations. From the foregoing, we can conclude that there is a universal criterion for social progress: progressive is that which contributes to the elevation of humanism.

CRITERIA FOR PUBLIC PROGRESS

The thoughts of the world community about the "limits to growth" have significantly actualized the problem of criteria for social progress. Indeed, if in the social world around us not everything is as simple as it seemed and seems to the progressives, then by what most essential signs can one judge the progressiveness of social development as a whole, the progressiveness, conservatism or reactionary nature of certain phenomena?

We note right away that the question “how to measure” social progress has never received an unambiguous answer in the philosophical and sociological literature. This situation is largely due to the complexity of society as a subject and object of progress, its diversity and diversity. Hence the search for its own, local criterion for each sphere of public life. But at the same time, society is an integral organism and, as such, it must meet the basic criterion of social progress. People, as G. V. Plekhanov noted, do not make several stories, but one story of their own relations. Our thinking is able and must reflect this unified historical practice in its entirety.

And yet the dominant idea of ​​infinite progress inevitably led to what seemed to be the only possible solution to the problem; the main, if not the only, criterion of social progress can only be the development of material production, which, in the final analysis, predetermines the change in all other aspects and spheres of social life. Among Marxists, V. I. Lenin insisted on this conclusion more than once, who as early as 1908 called for considering the interests of the development of productive forces as the highest criterion of progress. After October, Lenin returned to this definition and emphasized that the state of the productive forces is the main criterion for all social development, since each subsequent socio-economic formation finally defeated the previous one precisely because it opened up more scope for the development of productive forces, achieved a higher productivity of social labor. .

It is noteworthy that the conclusion about the state and level of development of the productive forces as the general criterion of progress was shared by the opponents of Marxism - the technists, on the one hand, and the scientists, on the other. The position of the latter obviously needs some comments, because a legitimate question arises: how could the concepts of Marxism (ie, materialism) and scientism (ie, idealism) come together at one point? The logic of this convergence is as follows. The scientist discovers social progress primarily in the development of scientific knowledge, but scientific knowledge acquires the highest meaning only when it is realized in practice, and above all in material production.

In the process of the ideological confrontation between the two systems, which is still only fading into the past, the technologists used the thesis about the productive forces as the general criterion of social progress to prove the superiority of the West, which was and is going ahead in this indicator. At that time, their opponents made a significant amendment to their own concept: this highest general sociological criterion cannot be taken in isolation from the nature of the production relations prevailing in a given society. After all, it is important not only the total amount of material goods produced in the country, but also how evenly and fairly they are distributed among the population, how this contributes or inhibits public organization rational use of productive forces and their further development. And although the amendment is indeed significant, it does not bring the criterion accepted as the main one beyond the limits of one - economic - sphere of social reality, does not make it truly integrative, that is, it passes through itself and absorbs changes in literally all spheres of life society.

Such an integrative, and therefore the most important, criterion of progress is the level of humanization of society, that is, the position of the individual in it: the degree of its economic, political and social liberation; the level of satisfaction of its material and spiritual needs; the state of her psychophysical and social health. Let us note, by the way, that within this indicator, which is complex in its structure, one can and should be singled out, which, in fact, combines all the others. That, in our opinion, is the average life expectancy. And if it in a given country is 10-12 years less than in the group of developed countries, and besides, it shows a tendency to further decrease, the question of the degree of progressiveness of this country should be decided accordingly. For, as one of the famous poets said, "all progress is reactionary if a person collapses."

The level of humanization of society as an integrative criterion incorporates the criteria discussed above in a removed form. Each subsequent formational and civilizational stage is more progressive in terms of personality - it expands the range of rights and freedoms of the individual, entails the development of his needs and the improvement of his abilities. It suffices to compare in this respect the status of a slave and a serf, a serf and a wage worker under capitalism. At first, it may seem that the slave-owning formation, which marked the beginning of the era of exploitation of man by man, stands apart in this respect. But, as F. Engels explained, even for a slave, not to mention the free ones, slavery was a personal progress: if before the prisoner was killed or eaten, now he was left to live.

Conclusion

one). Society is a complex organism in which various “organs” function (enterprises, associations of people, state institutions, etc.), various processes (economic, political, spiritual, etc.) simultaneously occur, and various activities of people unfold. All these parts of one social organism, all these processes, various types of activity are interconnected and, at the same time, may not coincide in their development. Moreover, individual processes, changes taking place in different areas of society can be multidirectional, i.e., progress in one area may be accompanied by regression in another. Thus, it is impossible to find any general criterion by which it would be possible to judge the progress of this or that society. Like many processes in our life, social progress based on various criteria can be characterized in different ways. Therefore, in my opinion, there is simply no general criterion.

2). Despite the inconsistency and ambiguity of many provisions of the socio-political concept of Aristotle, the approaches he proposed to the analysis of the state, the method of political science and its lexicon (including the history of the issue, the formulation of the problem, the arguments for and against, etc.), the allocation what is the subject of political reflection and reasoning, have a fairly noticeable influence on political research today. The reference to Aristotle is still a fairly weighty scientific argument confirming the truth of the conclusions about political processes and phenomena.

The concept of progress, as mentioned above, is based on some kind of value or set of values. But the concept of progress has become so firmly established in the modern mass consciousness that we are faced with a situation where the very idea of ​​progress - progress as such - acts as a value. Progress thus by itself, regardless of any values, tries to give meaning to life and history, and verdicts are passed on its behalf. Progress can be conceived either as striving for some goal, or as an endless movement and deployment. Obviously, progress without a foundation in some other value that would serve as its goal is possible only as an endless ascent. Its paradox lies in the fact that movement without a goal, movement to nowhere, generally speaking, is meaningless.

List of used literature:

1. Gubin V.D., Sidorina T.Yu., Philosophy, Moscow Gardarina 2005

2. Volchek E.Z., Philosophy, Minsk 1995

3. Frolov N. V., Introduction to Philosophy, Moscow 1989.

4. Article "The Concept of Social Progress in Social Philosophy"

Studying history, we see how different aspects of social life change over time, one type of society replaces another.

Social change

Various changes are constantly taking place in society. Some of them are being implemented before our eyes (a new president is being elected, social programs are being introduced to help families or the poor, legislation is being changed).

Social changes are characterized by their direction, they are both positive (positive changes for the better), they are called progress, and negative (negative changes for the worse) - regression.

We advise you to remember!
Social progress - consistent positive changes in society; the process of its ascent from one historical stage to another, the development of society from simple to complex, from less developed forms to more developed ones.
Social regression is the movement of society back to the lower stages of development.

Let's look at a historical example. The Roman Empire developed progressively over hundreds of years. New buildings were erected, architecture, poetry and theater developed, legislation was improved, new territories were conquered. But in the era of the Great Migration of Nations, barbarian nomadic tribes destroyed the Roman Empire. Cattle and poultry grazed on the ruins of ancient palaces, aqueducts no longer supplied fresh water to the cities. Illiteracy reigned where the arts and crafts once flourished. Progress has been replaced by regression.

Ways of social progress

Progress is made in many ways and ways. There are gradual and spasmodic types of social progress. The first is called reformist, the second - revolutionary.

We advise you to remember!
Reform - partial gradual improvement in any area; legislative change.
Revolution - a complete change in all or most aspects of public life, affecting the foundations of the existing social order.

The first revolution in the history of mankind was the so-called Neolithic revolution, which was a qualitative leap, the transition from an appropriating economy (hunting and gathering) to a productive one (agriculture and cattle breeding). The Neolithic revolution began 10 thousand years ago. It was a global revolution - it swept the whole world.

The second global process was the industrial revolution of the XVIII-XIX centuries. It also played an outstanding role in human history, led to the spread of machine production, the replacement of an agrarian society by an industrial one.

Global revolutions affect all spheres of society and many countries, and therefore lead to qualitative changes.

The revolutions taking place in individual countries also lead to reorganization in all spheres of people's lives. A similar thing happened to Russia after the October Revolution of 1917, when the Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies came to power. Authorities have changed, entire social groups have disappeared (for example, the nobility), but new ones have appeared - the Soviet intelligentsia, collective farmers, party workers, etc.

Reforms are partial changes that affect not the entire society, but its individual areas.

Reforms, as a rule, do not affect all countries, but each one individually, since this is an internal affair of the state. Reforms are carried out by the government, they are public, they are planned in advance, wide sections of the population are involved in their discussion, and the progress of the reform is covered by the press.

Interesting Facts
One of the greatest reformers in history was the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527-565) - He established a commission to create a code of Roman law (in Latin - Corpus juris civilis) in order to replace obsolete laws. It was also necessary to eliminate contradictions in the legislation. When the Code of Justinian was created, all laws not included in it lost their force. To this day, Roman law is the basis civil law most modern countries (including Russia).

Today, our country is undergoing an education reform that began back in the 1990s and led to the emergence of new textbooks, examination USE systems, state educational standards.

smart thought
"Progress is a way of being human."
- - Victor Hugo, French writer - -

The impact of technological progress on society

The basis for the development of society is technical progress - the improvement of tools and technology, as it changes production, the quality and productivity of labor, has an impact on man, on the relationship of society with nature.

Technological progress has a long history of formation. About 2 million years ago, the first tools of labor appeared (remember what they were), from which technical progress originates. Approximately 8-10 thousand years ago, our ancestors switched from gathering and hunting to farming and cattle breeding, and about 6 thousand years ago people began to live in cities, specialize in certain types of labor, divided into social classes. In the second half of the 17th century, with the beginning of the industrial revolution, the era of industrial factories opened, and in the 20th century - computers, the Internet, thermonuclear energy, and space exploration. The modern personal computer is superior in performance to the computing centers of the 80-90s of the last century.

What replaced the forge (1), plow (2), pen and inkwell (3)? Can we speak of social progress in these cases?

Perhaps no other society valued innovation as highly as it does today. In the 20th century, unique inventions were made: electricity, radio, television, cars, airplanes, nuclear energy, rocket science, computers, laser technology and robots. Each new invention, in turn, led to the creation of even more advanced generations of technology.

Technological progress also affected the social sphere. Technical devices make life much easier for a person, help people solve everyday problems (cook food, clean an apartment, do laundry, etc.), come to the aid of people with handicapped health. The advent of the automobile radically changed the idea of ​​the place of work and residence, made it possible for a person to live many kilometers from his workplace. People have become more mobile, including teenagers who, thanks to the Internet, have begun to communicate with their peers from geographically distant places.

Technological progress has changed the lives of millions of people, but at the same time has created many problems. Active human intervention in nature has led to many negative consequences: many species of plants and animals are disappearing or are on the verge of extinction, forests are being cut down, industrial enterprises pollute water, air and soil. The conveniences of city life are accompanied by air pollution, traffic fatigue, and so on.

Summing up
Social progress is the movement of mankind from lower to higher levels. It has a global character covering the whole world. On the contrary, regression is a temporary retreat from the won positions. Revolutions and reforms are two types of social progress. Revolutions can be global or limited to one or a few countries. Reforms are carried out only in one society and are gradual.

Basic terms and concepts
Social progress, social regression, reforms, revolution, technical progress.

Test your knowledge

1. Give examples of social change. Do changes in social life always lead to positive consequences? Justify your answer.
2. Explain the meaning of the concepts: "social progress", "social regression", "reform", "revolution", "technical progress".
3. Choose keywords that characterize social progress, regression of society, revolutions, reforms.
4. Give examples from history that illustrate the various paths of social progress.
5. How do you think wars affect the development of society? Do they play a progressive or regressive role? Explain your answer.

Workshop

What is progress? The idea of ​​regression

Progress(from Latin: "moving forward") - the direction of development, which is characterized by a transition from lower to higher.

Regression- movement from higher to lower, degradation processes, return to obsolete forms and structures.

Humanity as a whole has never regressed, but its forward movement could be delayed and even stopped for a while, which is called stagnation.

Characteristics of progress

1. Inconsistency

2. Specific historical character

3. Multidimensionality

4. Nonlinear character

5. Relativity of progress

social progress- a global, world-historical process of the ascent of human societies from primitive states (savagery) to the heights of a civilized state based on the highest scientific, technical, political, legal, moral and ethical achievements.

Areas of progress: economic progress, social (social progress), scientific and technological progress.

Forms of social progress:

1. Reformist (evolutionary), i.e. gradual

2. Revolutionary, i.e. spasmodic

Reforms can be economic, political, social.

There are short-term revolutions (French Revolution of 1848, February Revolution 1917 in Russia, etc.) and long-term ("Neolithic Revolution", "Industrial Revolution")

Controversy of progress

What is the opposite of progress?

1) If we depict the progress of mankind graphically, we will get not an ascending straight line, but a broken line, reflecting ups and downs, ebb and flow in the struggle of social forces, accelerated forward movement and giant leaps back.

2) Society is a complex organism in which various “organs” function (enterprises, associations of people, government agencies, etc.), various processes (economic, political, spiritual, etc.) simultaneously occur. These parts of one social organism, these processes, various types of activity are interconnected and, at the same time, may not coincide in their development. Moreover, individual processes, changes taking place in different areas of society can be multidirectional, i.e., progress in one area may be accompanied by regression in another.

Throughout history, the progress of technology has been clearly traced: from stone tools to iron ones, from hand tools to machines, from the use of the muscular strength of man and animals to steam engines, electric generators, nuclear power plants, from transportation on pack animals to cars, high-speed trains, aircraft, spaceships, from wooden abacus with knuckles to powerful computers.

But the progress of technology, the development of industry, chemicalization and other changes in the field of production have led to the destruction of nature, to irreparable damage to the human environment, to the undermining of the natural foundations of the existence of society. Thus, progress in one area was accompanied by regression in another.

3) The progress of science and technology had ambiguous consequences. Discoveries in the field of nuclear physics made it possible not only to obtain a new source of energy, but also to create a powerful atomic weapon. The use of computer technology not only greatly expanded the possibilities of creative work, but also caused new diseases associated with long, continuous work at the display: visual impairment, mental disorders associated with additional mental stress.

The growth of large cities, the complication of production, the acceleration of the rhythm of life - all this increased the burden on the human body, gave rise to stress and, as a result, pathologies. nervous system, vascular diseases. Along with the greatest achievements of the human spirit, cultural and spiritual values ​​are being eroded in the world, drug addiction, alcoholism, and crime are spreading.

4) Mankind has to pay a high price for progress. The conveniences of urban life are paid for by the "diseases of urbanization": traffic fatigue, polluted air, street noise and their consequences - stress, respiratory diseases, etc.; ease of movement in the car - congestion of city highways, traffic jams.

The idea of ​​circulation

The cycle of historical theory- various concepts, according to which society as a whole or its individual spheres move in its development in a vicious circle from barbarism to civilization and to a new barbarism.

Progress Criteria

Progress Criteria

1) French Enlighteners (Condorcet): the development of the mind.

2) Utopian socialists (Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen): society must adopt a form of organization that would lead to the implementation of the moral principle: all people should treat each other as brothers.

3) Schelling (1775 - 1854): gradual approach to the legal system.

4) Hegel (1770 - 1831): as the consciousness of freedom grows, the progressive development of society takes place.

6) Marxism:

The highest and universal objective criterion of social progress is the development of productive forces, including the development of man himself. The direction of the historical process is due to the growth and improvement of the productive forces of society, including the means of labor, the degree to which man masters the forces of nature, the possibility of using them as the basis of human life. The origins of all human activity lie in social production.

According to this criterion, those social relations are recognized as progressive, which correspond to the level of the productive forces and open up the greatest scope for their development, the growth of labor productivity, and the development of man. Man is considered as the main thing in the productive forces, therefore their development is understood from this point of view and as the development of the wealth of human nature.

Just as it is impossible to find a general, universal criterion of progress only in the public consciousness (in the development of reason, morality, consciousness of freedom), so it is impossible to find it in the sphere of material production (technology, economic relations). History has given examples of countries where a high level of material production was combined with the degradation of spiritual culture.

Conclusion: The disadvantage of all attempts to solve this problem was that in all cases only one line (or one side, or one sphere) of social development was considered as a criterion. And reason, and morality, and science, and technology, and the legal order, and the consciousness of freedom - all these indicators are very important, but not universal, not covering the life of a person and society as a whole.

Universal criterion of progress

The criterion of social progress is the measure of freedom that society is able to provide to the individual, the degree of individual freedom guaranteed by society. The free development of a person in a free society also means the disclosure of his truly human qualities - intellectual, creative, moral.

The development of human qualities depends on the living conditions of people. The more fully the various needs of a person in food, clothing, housing, transport services, in the spiritual field are satisfied, the more moral relations between people become, the more accessible for a person are the most diverse types of economic and political, spiritual and material activities. The more favorable the conditions for the development of the physical, intellectual, mental powers of a person, his moral qualities, the wider the scope for the development of individual properties inherent in each individual person. The more humane the conditions of life, the more opportunities for the development of the human in a person: reason, morality, creative forces.

Humanity, the recognition of man as the highest value, is expressed by the word "humanism". From what has been said above, we can draw a conclusion about the universal criterion of social progress: progressive is that which contributes to the rise of humanism.

Integrative indicators of the progressive development of modern society

Integrative indicators of the progressive development of modern society:

1. average life expectancy;

2. child and maternal mortality;

3. level of education;

4. development of various spheres of culture;

5. interest in spiritual values;

6. state of health;

7. feeling of satisfaction with life;

7. degree of observance of human rights;

There are two types of movement in the development of mankind - forward and backward. In the first case, it will develop progressively, in the second - regressively. Sometimes both of these processes occur simultaneously in society, but in different areas. Therefore, there are different types of progress and regression. So what is progress and regression? We will talk about this, as well as examples of progress, in this article.

What is progress and regression?

The concept of progress can be characterized as follows. Translated from the Latin language, progress is "moving forward." Progress is such a direction in social development, which is characterized by movement from lower forms to higher ones. From the imperfect to the more perfect, to the better, that is, moving forward.

Regression is the exact opposite of progress. This word also comes from the Latin language and means "reverse movement". Therefore, regression is a movement from higher to lower, from perfect to less perfect, changes for the worse.

What is progress like?

There are several types of progress in society. These include the following.

1. Social. It implies such social development that follows the path of justice, creating conditions for a decent, good life, for the development of the personality of each person. As well as the fight against the reasons that hinder this development.
2. Material or economic progress. This is a development in the process of which the material needs of people are satisfied. In order to achieve such satisfaction, it is necessary, in turn, to develop science and technology, to raise the standard of living of people.
3. Scientific. It is characterized by a significant deepening of knowledge about the surrounding world, man, society. As well as the continuation of the development of the surrounding terrestrial and outer space.
4. Scientific and technical. Means progress in the development of science, which is directed to the development technical side, improvement of the production sphere, automation of the processes occurring in it.
5. Cultural or spiritual progress. Marked by the development of the moral side of life, the formation of altruism, which has a conscious basis, the gradual transformation of a person's personality. It is assumed that from just a consumer of material goods, a person eventually turns into a creator, is engaged in self-development and self-improvement.

Progress Criteria

The topic of progress criteria has been controversial at different times. It has not ceased to be so today. Here are some of the criteria that together are evidence of progressive social development.

1. The development of the production sector, the entire economy, the expansion of people's freedom regarding nature, living standards, the growth of the well-being of the people, the quality of life in general.
2. Achieving a high level of democratization of society.
3. The level of personal and public freedom, which is enshrined at the legislative level. The existence of opportunities for the realization of the personality, for its comprehensive development, for the use of freedom within reasonable limits.
4. Moral improvement of all members of society.
5. The spread of education, the development of science and education. Expansion of the range of human needs related to the knowledge of the world - scientific, philosophical, aesthetic.
6. The duration of human life.
7. Increase goodness and feelings of happiness.

signs of regression

Having considered the criteria for progress, we will briefly talk about the signs of regression in society. These include such as:

• Economic decline, the onset of the crisis.
• Significant decline in living standards.
• Increase in mortality, decrease in life expectancy.
• The onset of a difficult demographic situation, a decrease in the birth rate.
• The spread of diseases above normal levels, epidemics, the presence of a large number of people with chronic diseases.
• Falling moral indicators, the level of education of people, culture in general.
• The use of force, as well as declarative methods in solving problems.
• Suppression of manifestations of freedom by violent means.
• General weakening of the country (state), deterioration of the domestic and international situation.

Progressive events

Let us give examples of progress observed throughout the history of mankind in various fields, which were of great importance.

• In ancient times, man learned how to make fire, create tools, and cultivate the land.
• The slave-owning system was replaced by the feudal system, as a result of which slavery was abolished.
• Printing was invented, the first universities were opened in Europe.
• New lands were developed during the period of the Great Geographical Discoveries.
• The United States became a sovereign state and adopted the Declaration of Independence.
• The French enlighteners organized activities aimed at proclaiming new social ideals, the main of which was freedom.
• During the French Revolution, the class division of people was abolished, freedom, equality, and fraternity were proclaimed.

Achievements of science and technology in the XX century

Although scientific discoveries have been made for a long time, the twentieth century is the true century of progress. Let us give examples of scientific discoveries that have greatly contributed to the progressive development of mankind. In the XX century were discovered and invented:

• The very first plane.
• Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
• The diode is an electronic lamp.
• Conveyor.
• Synthetic rubber.
• Insulin.
• TV set.
• Cinema with sound.
• Penicillin.
• Neutron.
• fission of uranium.
• Ballistic missile.
• Atomic bomb.
• A computer.
• Structure of DNA.
• Integrated circuits.
• Laser.
• Space flights.
• Internet.
• Genetic Engineering.
• Microprocessors.
• Cloning.
• stem cells.