History of Human SocietyBlackmar, Frank W. (Frank Wilson)
History
History of Human Society
Blackmar, Frank W. (Frank Wilson)
Civilization; Progress; Sociology
_Progress Expresses Itself in a Variety of Ideals and Aims_.--Progress
involves many lines of development. It may include biological
development of the human race, the development of man, especially his
growth of brain power. It may consider man's adaptation to environment
under different phases of life. It may consider the efficiency of
bodily structure. In a cultural sense, progress may refer to the
products of the industrial arts, or to the development of fine arts, or
the advancement of religious life and belief--in fact, to the mastery
of the resources of nature and their service to mankind in whatever
form they may appear or in whatever phase of life they may be
expressed. Progress may also be indicated in the improvement in social
order and in government, and also the increased opportunity of the
individual to receive culture through the process of mutual aid. In
fact, progress must be sought for in all phases of human activity.
Whatever phase of progress is considered, its line of demarcation is
carefully drawn in the process of change from the old to the new, but
the results of these changes will be the indices of either progress or
retardation.
{22}
_Progress of the Part and Progress of the Whole_.--An individual might
through hereditary qualities have superior mental traits or physical
powers. These also may receive specific development under favorable
educational environment, but the inertia of the group or the race might
render ineffective a salutary use of his powers. A man is sometimes
elected mayor of a town and devotes his energies to municipal
betterment. But he may be surrounded by corrupt politicians and
promoters of enterprises who hedge his way at every turn. Also, in a
similar way, a group or tribe may go forward, and yet the products of
its endeavor be lost to the world. Thus a productiveness of the part
may be exhibited without the progress of the race. The former moves
with concrete limitations, the latter in sweeping, cycling changes; but
the latter cannot exist without the former, because it is from the
parts that the whole is created, and it is the generalization of the
accumulated knowledge or activities of the parts that makes it possible
for the whole to develop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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