Human and Social Progress

Social progress has been defined in modern times in terms of three dominant social projects: the scientific-technological, the economic and the political. Each of these projects is founded on a classical humanist doctrine, such as Condorcet`s theory of the historical progress of the sciences and the arts, Adam Smith`s conception of the progressive increase of national wealth, and Karl Marx`s view of social progress through improving political institutions. Although originally humanist, these projects have received technocratic interpretations, which have distorted their direction and content. This has been possible because all three doctrines adopt a static-universalist perspective, in which the order of priority among the desirable dimensions of humanness is considered absolute, universal, immutable and empirically determined. Instead, a dynamic-relational perspective is proposed, in which all dimensions of humanness are conceived as inter-limiting and inter-supportive. This model may not lead to designing large-scale social systems, but does provide an effective critical instrument for safeguarding ideals of human fulfilment against technocratic and reductionist distortions.