Notions of Progress Titelbild

Notions of Progress

Notions of Progress

Von: Marshall Madow
Jetzt kostenlos hören, ohne Abo

Über diesen Titel

 Are we progressing individually, as a society, as a species , as a planet within a larger system ? The very fact that many are questioning the idea of progress is in itself an event that is both noteworthy and not unprecedented. The Notions of Progress podcast seeks to contribute historical context on the idea, promotion, and manifestation of progress within society. The podcast examines various Ideas of progress via discourse with a wide variety of guests including academics, theorists, and others. . Though the show primarily focuses on technological progress, it also explores the wider conception of progress along other dimensions including economics, politics, and science. Lastly, the program decidedly avoids an ideological or preordained perspective. The main driver of the show is the spirit of inquiry and thereby seeks to probe each idea strictly on its own merits. This includes examining the existence of progress itself and the associated trade-offs.Copyright 2026 Notions of Progress Welt
Folgen
  • The Sophists: Fifth Century Enlightenment? | Ep. 5 Pt.1

    The Sophists: Fifth Century Enlightenment? | Ep. 5 Pt.1
    Feb 24 2026
    About This EpisodeIn this episode of Notions of Progress — the first of a two-part solo series — we ask a deceptively simple question: were the ancient Greek Sophists the original enlightenment-like thinkers of human progress? These were the famous and sought-after educators of fifth-century Athens. They charged fees, itinerant, and claimed that human excellence could be developed, not just inherited. For that, they were called sophists — a word that still, today,carries a negative connotation.Drawing on W.K.C. Guthrie’s A History of Greek Philosophy, Rachel Barney’s scholarship on technê and Sophistic thought, Joshua Billings’ work on the fifth-century enlightenment, and the authentic fragments of Protagoras himself, this episode examines whether the Sophists represent a genuine ‘enlightenment’ movement — one defined by empirical inquiry and skepticism toward inherited authority, and a theory of civilizational progress through techne,teachable skills.The episode includes five key Greek terms that carry the conceptual weight of the Sophists’ argument, profiles the four major figures of the movement, and closes with Protagoras’s great myth of human origins from Plato’s Protagoras.Five Important Terms Sophistês (so-fis-TAYS): Literally “one who makes people wise.” A professional teacher of practical wisdom and civic skill in 5th-century Athens. Technê (tek-NAY): A Greek word with no exact English equivalent. It equates to systematic, teachable skills — but more than technique. Technê transforms its practitioner. The Sophists believed technê was a key driver of human progress.Aretê (ah-reh-TAY): Excellence, or virtue. For the Sophists, aretê was not a fixed gift of birth or divine favor — it was something that could be taught. Nomos (NOH-moss): Law, custom, convention. What human beings have established through agreement and institutions. Physis (FEW-sis): Nature, or natural reality. The tension between nomos and physis — between convention and nature — is one of the defining intellectual controversies of the fifth century as it informed one’s belief in acquired vs inherited powerMajor ThemesHow the word “sophist” went from a term of respect to an insult, and why it matters for reading the historical recordGeorge Grote’s 19th-century rehabilitation of the Sophists, and Eduard Zeller’s influential counter-verdict — a scholarly debate that still shapes how ancient philosophy is taughtJoshua Billings on the fifth-century enlightenment: three characteristic modes of Sophistic thought — empirical research, arguing both sides, and critical reasoning about divine causalityThe four major figures: Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus, and Hippias — what distinguished each of them and what they sharedProtagoras’s great myth from the Protagoras dialogue: a three-stage narrative of human progress from vulnerable animals to skilled craftsmen to citizens capable of governing themselvesWhether the Sophists represent the first systematic theory of progress through human agency — and what that question means for the larger arc of this podcastFascinating Historical InsightsAristophanes’ The Clouds as hostile source materialThe earliest surviving satire of Sophistic teaching is not a philosophical argument — it’s a comedy. In The Clouds (423 BCE), Aristophanes portrays Socrates running a “Thinkery” where students learn to make the weaker argument defeat the stronger. Scholars like W.K.C. Guthrie treat this as evidence of public anxiety about Sophistic education, not as an accurate description of what the Sophists actually taught.Protagoras was reportedly tried, banished, and his books burned in the Athenian agora. He was tried for impiety, expelled from Athens, and — according to ancient sources — his books were gathered and burned publicly in the agora. The man who said human beings were “the measure of all things” was destroyed by the very democratic city that prided itself on open debate. His books have not survived.Plato may have built his philosophy in the shadow of Socrates’ death — and the Sophists were part of what he was reacting againstIn 399 BCE, a jury of 501 Athenian citizens voted to execute Socrates. Plato was in his late twenties and witnessed it. In The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), Karl Popper argued that what followed was an act of intellectual betrayal: Plato, he wrote, was Socrates’ “most gifted disciple” who “was soon to prove the least faithful.” The jury that condemned Socrates was composed of precisely the kind of citizens the Sophists had spent decades empowering — ordinary Athenians. Whether this was a conscious act of revenge or something Plato could not fully acknowledge, Popper carefully stated “I cannot doubt the fact of Plato’s betrayal... But it is another question whether this attempt was conscious.” (The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 1, Ch. 10, p. 194–195)Plato /...
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    22 Min.
  • Five Faces of Progress: The Road to Anti-Progress |Prof. Tyson Retz Pt.2 | Ep. 4

    Five Faces of Progress: The Road to Anti-Progress |Prof. Tyson Retz Pt.2 | Ep. 4
    Feb 9 2026
    About This EpisodeIn this episode of Notions of Progress - Part Two, we continue exploring the fascinating evolution of progress thinking with Professor Tyson Retz, author of "Progress in the Scale of History" (Cambridge University Press, 2022). In this episode, Professor Retz discusses categories 3-5 of his framework: Relative Progress, Everybody’s Progress and Anti-Progress. He starts this opening by detailing the break from absolute progress to more current conceptions beginning in the 19th century with relative progress. It is during this period that a consciousness arises regarding the unequal costs and benefits that come with progress. This new consciousness extends to re-imagining the relationship between history and progress. These notions challenged previous frameworks that envisioned a progression of stages from “primitive” to more “evolved” civilizations along various paths. In yet another departure, Professor Retz takes us into the 20th century in detailing the rise of neo-liberal ideas around progress and the rejection of deterministic frameworks (e.g. historicism) that prescribe a fixed path for history to follow. It is here that he identifies critical totalitarian impulses that seek to control the course of history armed with the knowledge of these pre-determined forces. Lastly, Professor Retz arrives at the modern era whereby he outlines the turn in historical theories that view humankind within a much larger scale that encompasses a timeline leading back to the big bang and the inclusion of natural histories.He ends this interview on an optimistic note by highlighting the spirit beyond the enlightenment conception of progress in seeking to inspire collective action to make the world a better place. Five Categories of Progress: Periodizations from Antiquity to the PresentNo Progress - Why the ancients couldn't conceive of progress as we understand it. "Societies far and wide in the ancient world believed that time destroyed things rather than improved them." (Retz, 2022, p. 13)Absolute Progress - Universal history, stadial theory (civilizations move through stages), and the emergence of progress as a "collective singular" blending scientific, moral, and human advancement. (Retz, 2022, p. 16)Relative Progress - Progress as unevenly distributed and context-dependent. "Progress for some mean[s] decline for others." (Retz, 2022, p. 6)Everybody's Progress - The tension between collective state imposition of historical direction versus spontaneous market order (e.g. Neoliberalism, the rejection of historicism). "Economic growth became the dominant historical narrative in the twentieth century." (Retz, 2022, p. 45)Anti-Progress (Contemporary) - Contemporary rejection or skepticism toward progress narratives, driven by environmental crisis, a focus on the impact of humans across geological times,deep and big history (an expansive historical view extending well beyond the emergence of human existence and encompassing a wide range of areas of exploration). (Retz, 2022, pp. 7-16, from the Introduction)Major ThemesWe discuss relative progress as recognizing that advancement for some often meant decline for others, Japan's pragmatic modernization inspiring marginalized communities worldwide, movements attempting to separate progress from fixed historical paths (China's iconoclasm destroying the past to create new futures, India blending indigenous traditions with Western ideas), everybody's progress as the postwar project to measure and export development globally through neoliberal frameworks, Hayek's rejection of "historicism" and his claim that "guided progress would not be progress," the paradox that free markets require regulation to stay deregulated, how states use statistics to construct narratives of progress, the expansion of historical thinking (big history, deep history, Anthropocene) that reduces focus on human action, anti-progress as recognition that we may have progressed toward undesirable outcomes or that technology now controls us rather than the reverse, and the tension between cultural pessimism and techno-optimism today.Fascinating Historical InsightsJapan's influence on "marginalized states" in the late 19th-early 20th century - Japan's rapid modernization after defeating Russia in 1905 profoundly inspired marginalized communities worldwide, particularly African Americans. Booker T. Washington observed that Japan's rise "has nowhere been studied with greater interest or enthusiasm than by the Negroes of America," demonstrating that non-Western peoples could master Western technologies while maintaining distinct identities.The paradox at the heart of "free market" ideology - Neoliberalism's central contradiction: "a deregulated market requires regulation in order to keep it deregulated." The supposed spontaneous market order actually demands extensive governmental frameworks to maintain competitive conditions—"no regulation is a form of regulation too."China's ...
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    45 Min.
  • Five Faces of Progress: A Conceptual Framework for Historical Change |Prof. Tyson Retz | Ep. 3 Pt.1

    Five Faces of Progress: A Conceptual Framework for Historical Change |Prof. Tyson Retz | Ep. 3 Pt.1
    Jan 26 2026
    About This EpisodeIn this episode of Notions of Progress, we explore the fascinating evolution of progress thinking with Professor Tyson Retz, an intellectual historian at the University of Stavanger in Norway and author of "Progress and the Scale of History" (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Professor Retz introduces his innovative five-category framework that traces various conceptions of progress as part of a layered and contingent perspective from antiquity to the present day.Five Categories of Progress: Periodizations from Antiquity to the PresentNo Progress - Why the ancients couldn't conceive of progress as we understand it. "Societies far and wide in the ancient world believed that time destroyed things rather than improved them." (Retz, 2022, p. 13)Absolute Progress - Universal history, stadial theory (civilizations move through stages), and the emergence of progress as a "collective singular" blending scientific, moral, and human advancement. (Retz, 2022, p. 16)Relative Progress - Progress as unevenly distributed and context-dependent. "Progress for some mean[s] decline for others." (Retz, 2022, p. 6)Everybody's Progress - The tension between collective state imposition of historical direction versus spontaneous market order (e.g. Neoliberalism, the rejection of historicism). "Economic growth became the dominant historical narrative in the twentieth century." (Retz, 2022, p. 45)Anti-Progress (Contemporary) - Contemporary rejection or skepticism toward progress narratives, driven by environmental crisis, a focus on the impact of humans across geological times,deep and big history (an expansive historical view extending well beyond the emergence of human existence and encompassing a wide range of areas of exploration). (Retz, 2022, pp. 7-16, from the Introduction)Major ThemesWe discuss expanded ideas of scale in shaping progress narratives, the importance of "domain specificity" in analyzing particular historical claims, progress as a "collective singular"—a layered understanding comprised of multiple meanings, statistics as state narratives of progress, and the tension between optimism and pessimism in contemporary progress debates.Fascinating Historical InsightsWhy ancient Greeks celebrated advancement but didn't believe in "progress" - The Greeks recognized technical improvements in specific domains but lacked the conceptual framework to view humanity as progressing through time as a unified whole in the way it is viewed in the modern era.Japan's influence on "marginalized states" in the late 19th-early 20th century - Japan's rapid modernization provided an alternative model of progress for non-Western nations navigating imperialism and development.The paradox of progressive politics rejecting the concept of progress - Contemporary progressive movements often critique or abandon progress narratives even as they advocate for social change.The role of expansive conceptions of history - Big history, deep history, and the Anthropocene minimize the role of individual human agency, questioning whether humans remain purposeful historical actors in vast temporal and spatial scales.GuestProfessor Tyson Retz Associate Professor of Intellectual History, University of Stavanger, NorwayTyson Retz is an intellectual historian with a PhD from the University of Melbourne. His research examines how concepts like progress, empathy, and historical consciousness have been constructed and contested across different periods.His first book, Empathy and History: Historical Understanding in Re-enactment, Hermeneutics, and Education (Berghahn Books, 2018), explains the role that empathy played in providing history with a philosophical foundation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Critical of the psychologism of that tradition, the book develops an alternative to 'empathetic understanding' based on Gadamer's hermeneutical reception of Collingwood's logic of question and answer.His second book, Progress and the Scale of History (Cambridge University Press, 2022), appears in the Cambridge Elements series on Historical Theory and Practice. The Element develops five categories of progress from antiquity to the present day, examining how scale shapes our ability to perceive and claim progress.He is also the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles that explore the history of history as a concept and practice. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an editor of the Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method digital resource, and serves on the board of the History Education Research Journal.Show Notes & Timestamps00:00 Introduction to Progress and Historical Context 01:49 The Concept of Progress: A Paradox 04:22 Scale and Its Impact on Understanding Progress 06:45 Absolute Progress 08:24 Scale 10:00 The Role of Sample Size in Progress Claims 11:02 Bury 12:18 Debates on Ancient Beliefs in Progress 15:11 The First Category: No Progress in Antiquity 16:15 No Progress 17:47 Transition to Absolute Progress 20:28...
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    32 Min.
Noch keine Rezensionen vorhanden