Progress

Progress in the arts and sciences is cumulative, each generation inheriting from its predecessors; but political life tends to cycle rather than advance toward any final goal.

Civilization arose by natural necessity, not divine gift; the progressive conquest of nature through art and reason is genuine, but the desires it stimulates grow faster than the satisfaction it provides.

History is not cyclical but directional: from creation through the fall to redemption to final judgment; earthly progress is real but provisional, and the only progress that ultimately matters is the soul's movement toward God.

The advancement of learning is a moral duty and a political project: by organizing inquiry according to method, humanity can progressively conquer nature and relieve the human condition.

All generations together are one man who learns continually; but this applies only to the empirical sciences, not to morality or theology, where the ancients are genuinely wiser.

The arts and sciences have multiplied our wants without satisfying them; civilization is progress in the wrong direction, adorning our chains rather than breaking them.

History is the progressive self-realization of Spirit: what appears as contingent conflict and suffering is, at a deeper level, the necessary unfolding of Reason toward freedom.

Progress in civilization, intellectual life, and political freedom are mutually reinforcing; the free exchange of ideas is the engine of all genuine advancement.

History is driven by the contradictions of the mode of production; capitalism generates its own grave-diggers, and communism represents the first genuinely human stage of history.