Key questions Progress Studies must answer
And we have barely begun to do so
This article is part of my ongoing series on Progress Studies. You can read more on the topic in the following posts:
Key questions Progress Studies must answer (this article)
I wrote my book series and this Substack column partly to help give structure to the emerging field of Progress Studies. Today Progress Studies is more of an idea than a reality. It consists of a very loose grouping of people who are interested in the concept of progress and think that it is important.
We come from a wide variety of fields including digital technology, history, economics, and politics. Many of us enjoy reading about progress. A few of us also write about progress, whether in the form of a book or a blog. To get an idea of some of the people involved, check out my list of Progress-related Substack columns.
This is a great start, but if we want other people to take us seriously, we must do better. We need to develop an overlapping viewpoint with common terminology that answers questions that researchers and common people care about. Currently, I do not believe that we are doing that.
If Progress Studies is going to move past this early phase of intellectual development and become a real field of inquiry, we must start to compile what beliefs that we currently hold in common and what key questions related to progress need to be answered.
Below is a list of key questions that I believe the field of Progress Studies must answer. Also included are links to blog posts that I have written that present my answers to those questions. I do not pretend to speak for all of Progress Studies, but I want to get the debate started on each of these critical questions, and I think stating my viewpoint is the best means to do so.
I plan to write future posts that address some of the other questions:
What is progress? (my take)
What are the causes of progress? (my take)
How do we measure progress? (my take is upcoming in a future article)
Do we have evidence that progress exists? (my take)
When and where did progress start? (my take)
Why did it start at that time and place? (same link as above)
Why are so many people skeptical of the concept? (my take)
What is the future of progress? (my take is upcoming in a future article)
Is progress currently accelerating, slowing, or continuing at the same rate?
What can governments do to accelerate progress? (many takes, here, here, here, and here; many more upcoming)
What can individuals do to accelerate progress? (my take is upcoming in a future article)
How can we ensure that lower-income people in wealthy nations enjoy the benefits of progress? (my take)
How can we ensure that developing nations enjoy the benefits of progress?
Does progress promote happiness? (my take)
What are the psychological effects of progress? (same link as above)
In addition, I have written a book, “From Poverty to Progress,” that addresses many of these questions. My second book, “Promoting Progress” focuses mainly on public policies to promote future progress.
Of course, all fields of inquiry have multiple perspectives. If Progress studies becomes a dogma with impenetrable terminology and one viewpoint, it will fail. I highly value a diversity of opinions, knowledge, methods, and perspectives. I think that Progress Studies should do so as well. But the field will fail if we have such different viewpoints, terminology, and focus of interest that we have difficulty resolving any questions that people care about.
Perhaps it is best to think of it as developing a syllabus for “Progress 101.” All respected disciplines such as philosophy, economics, chemistry, political science, psychology, etc. have an introductory course that teaches the fundamentals of the discipline. Those fundamentals include common terminology, common perspectives, methods used, important questions within the field, and how various researchers within the field answer those questions.
These introductory courses may vary slightly from instructor to instructor and from university to university, but overall they cover the same fundamentals. Every student new to the discipline knows that they must master the fundamentals of the field before making contributions of their own.
Right now I do not think the field of Progress Studies is ready to teach that course. Or more accurately, the content of that course would vary radically depending upon which of us is teaching the course. I believe this is because we have still not developed a common set of fundamentals within the field.
So let’s get started with building the fundamentals that the field of Progress studies rests upon. I hope that my books and this Substack column will play a role in establishing those fundamentals.
Do you consider yourself a Progress Studies researcher? Do you disagree with any of the above? Can you think of any more critical questions that Progress Studies researchers must answer?
If so, leave a comment.
This article is part of my ongoing series on Progress Studies. You can read more on the topic in the following posts:
Key questions Progress Studies must answer (this article)