The Illusions of Progress

Georges Sorel

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780520323865
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520323872
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Georges Sorel's The Illusions of Progress critically examines the modern concept of progress, tracing its origins to Enlightenment-era rationalism and exposing its role as an ideological construct serving bourgeois interests. Sorel argues that progress, often presented as an inevitable and universal force driving human betterment, is in reality a tool of social and political domination. This ideology fosters complacency, legitimizes the power of ruling elites, and stifles genuine moral and revolutionary vigor. By conflating progress with virtue, modern society undermines its own moral foundations, replacing meaningful action and struggle with passive acceptance of a deterministic historical narrative. Sorel critiques both liberal democracy and parliamentary socialism for perpetuating this illusion of progress while entrenching the same elite structures that have dominated society across different eras. To counter the stifling effects of progressivism, Sorel advocates for revolutionary myths, such as the general strike, which inspire moral renewal and action through their emotive and imaginative power. Unlike rigid ideologies, myths remain adaptable and rooted in human creativity, fostering the kind of virtuous struggle that Sorel admires in periods of historical greatness, such as ancient Greece or the early Roman Republic. Despite his critique of progress, Sorel acknowledges the potential for material improvement in production, championing innovation driven by autonomous producers rather than bureaucratic control. Ultimately, he sees progress not as a natural law or moral imperative, but as an ideological weapon of the status quo, masking social inequalities and preventing the transformative energy needed for true societal renewal. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

Many titles in the Voices Revived program are also newly available as ebooks, offered at a discounted price to support wider access to scholarly work.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• CHAPTER I First Ideologies of Progress I. The dispute between the ancients and the moderns. The question of good models in religion and literature. The society people against Boileau. The triumph of good language technicians, II. Morals at the end of the seventeenth century. The philosophy of Fontenelle, The political origin of the ideas on nature, Pascal versus superficial rationalism, Cartesianism and society people, III. The idea of a pedagogy of humanity. The popularizers, Condorcet conceives of popular education on an aristocratic model; his illusions with regard to the results of education.
• CHAPTER II The Triumphant Bourgeoisie I. Creation of the royal bureaucracy. The growth of a class of bureaucrats. The importance of good administration. The need for tranquility. Fiscal control of the Parlements. II. The nature of the ideology of a class of bureaucrats. The great freedom given to theorists. Entering into the realm of practice in three main aspects. III. Contract theories. The vagueness of Rousseau’s book. The reasons for the success of an abstract doctrine. The origins of the ideas of contract and Locke’s system. Agreement among the members. The general will. Contradictory interpretations of the Social Contract. IV. The physiocrats. Their administrative ideas. Their theory of property and of foundations. The success of their judicial system after the Revolution. V. The men of letters. Their influence derived from the place ascribed to them by the nobility. Their true role in the aristocracy. The absence of a critical attitude.
• CHAPTER III Science in the Eighteenth Century I. Science as an object of curiosity. The Encyclopedia. General knowledge necessary for administrators. Discoveries that inspire great hopes. II. Application of mathematics to social questions. Condorcet’s illusions. Reasons for the error then made. Perpetuation of a false science of probabilities.
• CHAPTER IV The Boldness of the Third Estate I. Rousseau’s prudence in the face of practical questions. Turgot’s increasing boldness. Confidence given to the ideologues by the American Revolution. II. The return to nature. The importance of enlightenment. The transforming influence of education. III. Literature on the savages. Father Charlevoix’s descriptions. Indifference toward the existing order. IV. Economic progress. New administrative preoccupations. Increase of revolutionary momentum with material progress.
• CHAPTER V Theories of Progress I. Turgot’s discourse. Differences with Bossuet; bourgeois preoccupations. Development of progress in the midst of life’s unforeseen circumstances. Material progress in the Middle Ages. II. Madame de Staël’s defense of the new order. The new principles of literary criticism. The fusion of different civilizations. Christianity. Violence. III. The birth of the idea of evolution at the end of the wars of national independence. The historical formation of law and juridical conscience. Evolution is the opposite of progress. IV. Tocqueville and the necessary march toward equality. Proudhon’s and Marx’s objections. Proudhon’s abandonment of the idea of necessity; moral progress. V. The idea of progress in democratic literature. P. Lacombe’s theory: its naive illusions; what it reveals about democracy. VI. Natural progress or technical progress in production. A glance at the progress of machines. Contemporary ideology.
• CHAPTER VI Greatness and Decline517 I. Cyclical development in Greek philosophy. The law of apparent regression. Significance of primitive communism and of socialist programs. II. Degeneration of the law; penal system; divorce; influence of commercial practices and of liquid capital. III. Unique occurrences in history. Reasons for Roman law. The Renaissance and the French Revolution. General views on revolutions. IV. Genius and mediocrity. Arts and entertainment. Corruption of the educational and political arts. Religions: the modern role of mediocrity. Philosophies. V. Conclusions on democracy.
• CHAPTER VII The Advance toward Socialism573 I. The three types of capitalism. Usury. Commerce. Supremacy of industry. Simultaneity or succession. Hegelian bias of Marx. II. Manufacturing. Reduction of the •worker to the role of insect. Marx’s free cooperation. Vocational education. III. Stages of capitalism traced by Kautsky. Trusts and cartels according to Paul de Rousiers. The American’s penchant for isolation. Illusion of the trusts. Trusts and socialism. IV. The conditions under ‘which Marx’s predictions are relevant. Inefficacy of social democracy. Disintegration according to Proudhon. Rebirth of socialism under the influence of Bolshevik ideas.
• Index