Progress And Catastrophe - An Anatomy Of Human Adventure (Paperback)

PROGRESS AND CATASTROPHE AN ANATOMY OF HUMAN ADVEN R BY STANLEY ASSON Fellow of New College Oxford HARPER BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 937 CONTENTS PART in OUR COMPLACENT WORLD XVI PRE-WAR AND POST-WAR LIFE 9S XVII THE PERVERSION OF SCIENCE fl XVni THE FUTURE NOTES Vl PREFACE IN THIS small book I have attempted a single task to search through the records of civilisation for those elements which lead to what is usually called Progress, and also for those elements which lead to the opposite movement, Retrogression. Such elements are more easily perceived in the earlier stages of the devel opment of mankind, so that my material lies in the main part in the field where the archaeologist is the best observer. The two great triumphs of Retrogres sion occurred, one in an age before the universal re cording of history, the other when, by good fortune, fairly full records are available. I have, therefore, used the evidence available in each case, archaeological in the formpr, literary and archaeological in the latter. I have tried faithfully to let the evidence tell its own story, and have commenced my analysis without any prepossessions. I do not believe that human history follows any pattern or shape, or that there are any known causes of rise or fall which are followed by pre dictable effects. Historical analogies are usually foolish and always dangerous and I have striven to avoid them. PREFACE But a study of the evidence reveak tendencies which follow more or less along well-defined grooves. To-day it seems erf profound importance to study these tend encies and to see whether those which we can observe operative in the past are also operative in the present. If we conclude thatcontemporary conditions suggest the reappearance of retrogressive forces we can at least try to arrest them and reverse the direction of dis ruptive tendencies. To that extent this book is a study in applied optimism rather than an admission of defeat. Much that I have written is controversial. Many of my archaeological conclusions and critical comments are open to dispute. Many of my facts can be countered by other facts. But I hope that out of the general mass of evidence I have collected, it is at least possible for the reader to discern the main elements of human ad vance and human retirement. Any general history of civilisation wiU give the material for a study such as this, but it seems to me that those who have written world histories have too often forgotten the earlier stages of mans development and stressed too much those periods which are most fully documented. In so doing they fail all too often to discover those tenden cies which it is the purpose of this book to emphasise. No scientific study can be of use to humanism un PREFACE less it has an application to contemporary life. I have attempted to make such application from the study of archaeology, by producing examples which seem to have a value at the present day. I can only apologise for making a book which is little more than a series of conclusions about human history which deserve, more to-day than perhaps at any other time, the con templation of the incurable optimist and the respect of the confirmed pessimist. I am myself neither the one nor the other. Parti THE FOUNDATIONS OF CIVILISATION CHAPTER I THE NATURE OF PROGRESS The same path leads op the hill and down. HERACLETTOS. THE term Progress, with a capital P, isa relatively new invention. It implies, not merely movement onwards from one point to another, which is the mean ing usually given to it in ordinary usage, but a move ment in the course of which something is picked up en route which transforms the progress into a tri umphal procession. Do you believe in progress is a question which for a century has been asked only in derision, the possibility of a genuinely intended nega tive being disregarded...

General

Imprint:	Read Books
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	March 2007
First published:	March 2007
Authors:	Stanley Casson
Dimensions:	216 x 140 x 15mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	276
ISBN-13:	978-1-4067-4711-9
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > General Books > History > General Promotions
LSN:	1-4067-4711-4
Barcode:	9781406747119

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