Progress is defined as movement forward, toward some goal deemed to be good. It connotes the steady development or gradual improvement of a civilization. While many Americans take the idea and reality of progress for granted, there are, nevertheless, profound difficulties attending the concept. 

In the first place, what is “movement forward”? Whose criteria will be enlisted to determine whether a society is progressing or regressing? Unavoidably the question of progress involves deeper questions concerning the nature of human existence and the existence of human nature. If the ultimate goal of human beings is to find and remain in a state of happiness, by what means can that state be achieved? Answers to this question differ markedly. For traditionalist conservatives, the recovery of the sacred may be reckoned as true forward movement; for libertarians, the recovery of the unregulated marketplace. 

This leads to a second difficulty, which involves the spheres of life in which true progress is possible. Since antiquity, most observers of the human condition have recognized that progress is possible in science, technology, and the professions. If or when progress occurs in a society’s laws and institutions is more debatable and depends on the context and consequences of change over time. Whether significant forward movement takes place in literature and the fine arts is dubious. And whether advancement is possible in the realm of human nature and morality is, for most conservatives, altogether doubtful. In fact, since antiquity, technological progress among a people has been seen as perfectly compatible with moral regress.

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