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Philosophy

THE IDEA OF PROGRESS

in
Author: 
Ian Taylor

INTRODUCTION

The idea of progress – the belief that mankind has advanced in the past, is now advancing, and will inevitably advance in the foreseeable future – is a peculiarly Western faith with a short history and, it turns out, a doubtful future. We will take a brief look at the history of the idea of progress over the past 2,800 years and then turn to a couple of appropriate disciplines from the sciences to see if the facts support the progression or regression of mankind.

HISTORY OF THE IDEA OF PROGRESS

Footnotes: 

1) Lattimore, Richmond, translator. Hesiod.
        University of Michigan Press. 1959.
    The story of Prometheus: Lines 42-105.
    The story of the races: Lines 106-200
    The character of the Golden race: Lines 110-126.
    The quote “some good things mixed with the evils.” Line 179.

2) Grene, David, translator. Prometheus Bound
    In: Aeschylus II, David Grene ed.
    University of Chicago Press, 1956. Lines 442-471.

3) Jowett, B., translator. The Dialogues of Plato.
N.Y. Random House, 2 vols. 1937.
                 The quote, “… was naked and shoeless … “  Protagoras, Vol. 1, line 321

4) Dods, Marcus, translator. The City of God by Saint Augustine.
    The Modern Library, N.Y.: Random House 1950.
                         The necessity of history: Book II, part 23.
                         The division of history:  Books XIII to Book XVIII
    The final destruction of evil: Book XX, part 16

5) Bury, J. B. The Idea Of Progress
    N. Y.: Dover Publications reprint. 1955 (First ed. 1920), p.21-22

6) Nisbet, Robert. History of the Idea of Progress.
 N.Y. Basic Books, 1980, p.124.

7) Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man.
         London: John Murray, 1871, 2 vols.
                         Vol 1, Chapters 2ff. continual reference to “savages.

8) Jebb, Richard, translator. The Tragedies of Sophocles
         Cambridge: At the University Press. 1957, p. 148. Antigone, line 614.

9) Toynbee, A. A Study of History
        London: Oxford University Press, 1934-1961, 12 vols. Vol. 1, p.424 - 440.

10) Lang, Andrew. Magic and Religion
        London: Longmans, 1901. Note: Copies of this work are quite rare.

11) Ackerman, Robert. J. G. Frazer: His Life and Work
        Cambridge: At the University Press. 1987, p. 172

12) Raglan, Lord. Some Aspects of Diffusion.
        Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (London). 1957, Vol. 87, p.139 [144]

13) Kuper, Adam. The Invention of Primitive Society.
        London: Routledge. 1988, p. 7

14) Nisbet, ibid.  p.9

15) Sloate, Daniel, translator. The Life of Mozart by Stendhal
        Montreal, Canada: Guernica, 1991, p. 22-27

16) Yates, Frances A. The Art of Memory
        Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1966, p. 41
        [From: Pliny, Natural History VII, chap. 24]

17) Stratton, George M. The Mnemonic Feat of the “Shass Pollak.”
        Psychological Review 1917, 24:244
        [See also Encyclopedia Judaica 1971, 12:187]

18) Hooper, J. A. & A. Whyld. The Oxford Companion to Chess.
                     Oxford University Press, 1992, p.206.
 19) Hunter, Ian M. L.  An Exceptional Talent for Calculating Thinking  
                     British Journal of Psychology  1962, Vol. 53, p.243-258

20) Horowitz, William, et.al. Identical Twin “idiot savant” Calendar Calculators
    British Journal of Psychiatry, 1965, 121:1075

21) Howe, Michael J.A. and J. Smith. Calendar Calculating in Idiot-Savants
    British Journal of Psychology, 1988, 79:371
    [See also: Smith, Steven B. Great Mental Calculators.
    New York: Columbia University Press, 1983]

22) Tyrrell, George. The Personality of Man
    London: Penguin Books, 1946, p. 30ff.

23) Andison, Mabelle, translator. The Dream of Descartes by Jacques Maritan.
    New York: Philosophical Library, 1944.

24) Brackman, Arnold. A Delicate Arrangement.
    New York: Times Books, 1980, p. 198

25) Tyrrell ibid. p. 34

26) Loewi, Otto. From the Workshop of Discoveries.
    Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1953, p. 32

The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of

in
Author: 
Ian Taylor

The history of the rise of humanism in Europe is the record of society's change in the way of thinking from being God-centered to human-centered. This change was a reaction against the authoritarian rule by theologians who used Scripture to interpret nature but relied upon the writings of Aristotle to make those interpretations. This change in thinking began in the 1600s and has continued into the present day; two names are recognized by historians as being more responsible than any others for initiating this humanist worldview. Those names are Francis Bacon and René Descartes.

Footnotes: 

TFE Publishing, 33 Ontario St., Suite 112, Kingston, ON. K7L 5E3

The Baconian Method of Science

in

1.  The three basic questions that have faced mankind  since the beginning of time are: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? Philosophers have attempted to provide answers based upon human wisdom but these answers vary from one philosopher to the next. On the other hand, a great many people believe that there is a God who created everything and gave mankind the Scriptures in which are found the correct answers to those three eternal questions.

Teaching Evolution - Is There a Better Way?

in
Author: 
Ian Taylor

1. Today's public school textbooks on Biology, Earth sciences, and Human society generally well-present the facts; it is the interpretation of those facts that is currently under fire and is being openly questioned. Without exception, that interpretation is from the evolutionary perspective and serves to colour the very words that are used in the text. Textbooks on Human anthropology are notoriously bad in this repect.

Footnotes: 

TFE Publishing, 33 Ontario St., Suite 112, Kingston, ON. K7L 5E3

Scientific Racism

in
Author: 
Ian Taylor

1. Human pride is the usual cause of racial prejudice and every ethnic group has been guilty of believing themselves to be somehow superior to all others: Christians of the past have been no exception. Modern genetics has well established the fact that all colors of the human race will have derived from a single mating pair; the color of that pair would have been brown and, in fact, that is the predominant color of the human race today. Scripture reminds us that all men are of the same blood (Acts 17:26) and nowhere speaks of race although it does speak of families.

Footnotes: 

TFE Publishing, 33 Ontario St., Suite 112, Kingston, ON. K7L 5E3

Promoters of the Humanist Ideal

in
Author: 
Ian Taylor

1. From Genesis 4:3-5 we see that Abel was a keeper of the sheep while Cain was a tiller of the ground so it would seem quite reasonable for Cain to have brought a grain or fruit offering but this displeased the Lord. From Genesis 3:21 where God made coats of skin for Adam and Eve, it is clear that an animal must have been sacrificed with blood shed to do so. Although unstated in this context, God had given instructions for the sin offering with shed blood thus Cain's unbloody offering was fundamentally unacceptable.

Footnotes: 

TFE Publishing, 33 Ontario St., Suite 112, Kingston, ON. K7L 5E3

On Capital Punishment

in
Author: 
Ian Taylor

The foundations for human morals and ethics are found in the book of Genesis. The issue of capital punishment was given Genesis 9:6, God’s Covenant with Noah upon leaving the ark and entering the new world after the Flood: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” In the former world, from the Creation to the Flood, permission had not been given to take the life of the murderer. Instead, the murderer was to be exiled as in the example of Cain who murdered his brother, Abel (Genesis 4:8-16).

Freud: The Darwin of the Human Psyche

in
Author: 
Ian Taylor

Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx have often been regarded as that unholy trinity who, in the last century, laid the foundation for today's pagan society. Darwin gave the world biological evolution in 1859. Freud later developed the notion to give us the evolution of the human psyche, while at about the same time Marx told us how society would evolve. The following short exposé shows the important influence of Darwin on Freud's thinking and includes some very recent disclosures.

Footnotes: 

Engelman, E. 1972. Engelman's farewell view. CA: Intellectual Digest 2[Jan.]:74. Frazer, J.G. 1890. The Golden Bough. London: Macmillan. 2 vols. Masson, J.M. 1984. The Assault on Truth. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Semitis, I.G. 1987. Sigm

Inventing the Flat Earth

in
Author: 
Ian Taylor

It's no surprise that the history taught in our schools is a rather dull subject. Virtually all events in history, particularly European history, were motivated by religious causes: Muslims massacred Christians, Catholics slaughtered Protestants, Protestants killed Catholics, and all parties persecuted Jews. In the 1800s schools were run by religious authorities, and children attended the school of their parents' faith. When governments took over education, children of various faiths were all hurled together into the same classroom.

Footnotes: 

Boorstin, Daniel. 1983. The Discoverers. New York: Random House.

Draper, John W. 1874. History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science. New York: Appleton.

Irving, Washington. 1829. The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. New York: J.J. Harper. The entire presentation of the confrontation between Columbus and the church authorities at Salamanca was a product of Irving's imagination!

Morrison, Samuel Eliot. 1942. Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Boston: Little Brown, 2 vols. In vol. 1 Morrison describes Irving's version of the meeting at Salamanca as "pure moonshine" (p. 88).

Russell, Jeffrey Burton. 1991. Inventing the Flat Earth. New York: Praeger (Greenwood Publishing).

White, Andrew Dickson. 1896. A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. 2 vols. Reprint, 1978. Cloucester, MA: Peter Smith.

Can You Trust Your Textbook?

in
Author: 
Ian Taylor

1. Public school textbooks on Biology, Earth sciences, and Human society generally well-present the facts; it is the interpretation of those facts that is currently under fire and of concern. Without exception, the interpretation is from the evolutionary perspective and serves to colour the very words that are used in the text. Textbooks on Human anthropology are notoriously bad in this respect.

Footnotes: 

TFE Publishing, 33 Ontario St., Suite 112, Kingston, ON. K7L 5E3

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