Z. Soner Dinç Philosophy, Master’s Degree)
The concepts “progress”, “development and “change” have become a part of our daily lives. We hear things like “progressive, changeable, developmental” almost every day. But what are they? It is possible to say that the concept of progress and the origin of the discussions around almost date back to the same time. Becoming much denser following the massive destruction caused by World War II (1945), the concept of “progress” (German: der Progress or der Fortschritt), which became/was made a cursed concept that must be almost absolutely abstained from, either has become actually forbidden or has been forced into a position which is nearly compulsory to be avoided, as emphasized in his quotation “It is said that Tzar Nicholas I of Russia [1796-1855] banned the use of the word “progress”: Currently, philosophers and historians from Western Europe or even from the United States, though belatedly, have come to the same conclusion as he did.” by Edward Carr, a great historian. Within this long process, the consideration of the concept of progress in an extremely distorted, superficial manner stuck inside the boundedness of a daily jargon has become a circumstance and a norm being almost generally accepted. Following the expressions that presented a negative and certain judgment about it from the beginning, the points of determinant significance, such as what the progress is, how it appeared, what it quintessentially meant, had initially become obscure and then were reduced to a secondary position which never became main topics of conversation, losing their essential position. Due to this fact, it is virtually obligatory to take a look at the date of appearance of the concept of progress in the first place.
