Progress Unchained Ideas of Evolution, Human History and the Future
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Progress Unchained Ideas of Evolution, Human History and the Future

SKU: 9781108905251

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Additional information

Full Title

Progress Unchained Ideas of Evolution, Human History and the Future
Author(s)

Peter J. Bowler
Edition
ISBN

9781108905251, 9781108842556
Publisher

Cambridge University Press
Format

PDF and EPUB

Description

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.

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Progress Unchained Ideas of Evolution, Human History and the Future
-70%
Availability: In Stock

Progress Unchained Ideas of Evolution, Human History and the Future

SKU: 9781108906241

Original price was: $44.99.Current price is: $13.50.

Access Progress Unchained Ideas of Evolution, Human History and the Future Now. Discount up to 90%

Categories: ,

Additional information

Full Title

Progress Unchained Ideas of Evolution, Human History and the Future
Author(s)

Peter J. Bowler
Edition
ISBN

9781108906241, 9781108842556
Publisher

Cambridge University Press
Format

PDF and EPUB

Description

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.

Related products