It is a book from the 1920s, dealing with the history of the idea of progress from the XV and XVI century utopias to the XX century progress consensus. There is a free audio book version in Libri Vox.
I am aware of the book. I am not sure whether I have skimmed it, but I am sure that I have not read it carefully. I tend to give books a long skim before I commit to reading it.
Any key points that readers of this column should be aware of?
Well, it is mainly a “history of ideas” book, and argues that there was a long change in elite mentality from “afterlife” to “the future” as the place for salvific theology. The author gives special relevance to Cartesianism, as the basis for mechanist philosophy, and you can read about several very popular but mostly forgotten writers in XVII, Xviii and XiX century Europe.
For the sligtly more academically inclined, I would recommend Deirdre McCloskeys trilogy and anything from Joel Mokyr.
Thanks for the comment.
Agreed. I have summaries of most of them in my library of online book summaries.
https://techratchet.com/2020/05/18/authors-worth-reading/
(you can scroll down the list to find their names)
While I disagree with some of their conclusions, they are "must reads" for anyone interested in human material progress.
Do you Know about “The idea of progress” by JB Bury?
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4557
It is a book from the 1920s, dealing with the history of the idea of progress from the XV and XVI century utopias to the XX century progress consensus. There is a free audio book version in Libri Vox.
I am aware of the book. I am not sure whether I have skimmed it, but I am sure that I have not read it carefully. I tend to give books a long skim before I commit to reading it.
Any key points that readers of this column should be aware of?
Well, it is mainly a “history of ideas” book, and argues that there was a long change in elite mentality from “afterlife” to “the future” as the place for salvific theology. The author gives special relevance to Cartesianism, as the basis for mechanist philosophy, and you can read about several very popular but mostly forgotten writers in XVII, Xviii and XiX century Europe.
Thanks for the reference.
I generally focus on the material conditions that create progress, but ideas matter as well.
Sorry: a mistake: XVI and XVII century utopias...