The Idea of Progress, example

Today, I’m going to talk about The Idea of Progress. So, first of all, I would like to give a definition of this notion : the idea of progress can be defined as an improvement, a development or a change like a technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to making the world a better place.

Does progress necessarily imply improvement…? Is ethics a guarantee of good progress ?

At first, we will see the reasons why the progress goes for the better and then we will see how it could be bad and unnecessary.

I/ Why does the progress go for the better ?

As we all know, the world is in a perpetual development. In this case, the progress enters into this world and takes up a great importance. If we take the example of the scientific field, we can see all the improvements and all the things we can do today, unlike before, and especialy in the medecine sector : we can now cure or treat some diseases like the cancer. For exemple in the speech of Obama done at the White House the ninth of May in 2009, the president mentions the research of stem cell and the progress of medecine by researches, that’s why the government had to support this work because it helps the Americans. […]

So we improved in the healing of diseases nevertheless that’s not only that : there is also a progress for handicapped person. We can link it with the video we’ve seen in class which is a speech at Tedmed by Hugh Herr in 2010. He was talking about his personnal situation, a life story with bionics […] and he invented his leg prothesis.

We saw the interest of the progress and his necessity. However, there are also other points in which the progress could become the opposite of what we said.

II/ How could the progress be bad and unnecessary ?

Contrary to what we can think, progress doesn’t mean a perfect world. In fact, the improvement of science creates possibilities of the Human but we could considerate them like unethical. For example, in a report by CBSNews named “Designer Babies”, we see the L.A. Fertility Institute which propose for couples to choose the different physical characteristics of their babies like the color of their eyes or hair. And maybe biological characteristics choosing the sex of the child. That puts a real question of ethic because it seems we could belong to a world where the laws of Nature no longer exist. […]

In a world of Progress, in the future society, we try to imagine what can happen. Technological, medical and social fields are all developed and we interpret this kind of society as an utopia or a distopia. To illustrate that, I will talk about the movie “What Happened to Monday” realized by Tommy Wirkola in 2017 […]

There is also the famous roman by Aldous Huxley in 1932, Brave New World.

Conclusion :

Progress is good for us but it has his limits

We need progress in medecine to treat diseases but after it the life expectancy of humans will be longer so we will have to face up to the overpopulation of the planet. There is also the problem of ethic with babies, as we seen, or the immortal human.

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