After Progress: Finding the Old Way Forward

An important, bold challenge to our attitude toward progress.

As we stand on the brink of the third millennium, we are very much in thrall to the idea that civilization is moving forward in a progressive direction, and that overall in the world things are getting better. In After Progress, philosopher Anthony O'Hear argues that we need to temper our optimism and self-assurance, that progress has not been attained without some loss. The gains of the past two or three centuries, particularly in the fields of science and democratic politics, have resulted in losses in areas once thought of as allied to religion, such as art, education, morality and philosophy. O'Hear asks the basic question: why does it seem there are more unhappy people today in the US and in Britain when we are living in a time of unprecedented individual affluence, health and human rights? O'Hear sets out to find out how we might re-examine our lives of progress by looking back on what we have learned from the great philosophers, scientists, and thinkers of the past.

After Progress serves as an introduction to the ideas of major thinkers from Plato to Wittgenstein, as well as providing a new way to think about the present, by not ignoring the lessons from the past.

Anthony O'Hear is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bradford and Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. He is a frequent contributor to many national publications, and is the author of a number of books on philosophy, including Beyond Evolution and What Philosophy Is.