Questão 39 do ITA 2026

The voluminous literature dealing with the idea of human progress is decidedly a mixed bag. While some of these writings are impressive and even inspiring, many of them are superficial, perhaps even ridiculous, in their reiteration (especially during the nineteenth century) of the comforting prospect that every day in every way we are growing better and better.

This kind of foolishness is manifested especially in discussions of such matters as economic, political, and moral progress, and of progress in art.[…]

From time to time, there seems to be real and measurable improvement in these areas. At other times the opposite seems equally to be the case. Thus the fervent belief of writers like the French sociophilosopher Auguste Comte in the inevitability of progress in all fields of human endeavor must be viewed as insupportable. We cannot accept it any longer, even if we once thought it was true.

Progress in human knowledge is another matter. Here it is possible to argue cogently that progress is in the nature of things. “Not only does each individual progress from day to day”, wrote French philosopher, mathematician, and mystic Blaise Pascal, “but mankind as a whole constantly progresses… in proportion as the universe grows older.” The essence of man as a rational being, as a later historian would put it, is that he develops his potential capacities by accumulating the experience of past generations.

Just as in our individual lives we learn more and more from day to day and from year to year because we remember some at least of what we have learned and add our new knowledge to it, so in the history of the race the collective memory retains at least some knowledge from the past to which is added every new discovery.

The memories of individuals fail and the persons die, but the memory of the race is eternal, or at least it can be expected to endure as long as human beings continue to write books and read them, or – which becomes more and more common – store up their knowledge in other mediums for the use of future generations.