The ignored origins of the concepts of progress and evolution
The ignored origins of the concepts of progress and evolution

Summary/Abstract: The related concepts of progress, development, or evolution seem to be the expression of pure modern rationality, of science. The present paper intends to show that these concepts have another root that can be found in the realm of myth, of occult theology, or mythology. The transformist point of view can be found in Heraclitus from Efesus or in Hinduism, but also in hermetic philosophy or the Kabbalah or even alchemy. All these points of view have been synthesized and expressed in Hegel’s work and through Hegel they got to be present in Marxism. The role of the state is now conflated with the role of the divine Redeemer. Politics gets a new meaning. The fact that progress and evolution have become Indisputable dogmas and carry such an import is to find in the religious roots thereof and the view on man as the self-deifying agent.

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