Progress
This theme runs through several big questions. Here are the ones where it plays out.
The questions that illuminate it
Does technological progress improve the human condition?
Each new tool frees us from old burdens, but breeds dependencies and powers we barely control; does technology serve our ends, or silently transform our desires and even who we are? To take a position is to say whether technical progress is a promise to seize or a hold to keep watch over.
Should we preserve the legacy of our institutions, or transform society in the name of progress?
The past hands down an experience no one designed alone, but also injustices no one dares touch any longer; reform can liberate, or undo what worked for reasons we never grasped. To take a position is to say where to place our trust: in what has lasted, or in our power to remake it better.
Should we use technology to enhance human nature beyond healing?
Healing repairs what falters, but should we go further, and make ourselves stronger, smarter, all but immortal? To refuse is perhaps to accept limits and sufferings we could lift; to accept is to risk dissolving what makes us human and opening a gulf between enhanced human beings and ordinary ones. To take a position is to say what, in us, must remain untouchable.
Is hope a force that sustains life and action, or an illusion we ought to let go of?
Hope gives the strength to hold on and to act when all seems lost, but it can blind us to what is and make us put life off until later; giving it up can free the courage to face the real, or dry up the drive to go on. To take a position is to say whether one can be lucid without ceasing to hope.
Does human history follow a direction, or is it sheer contingency?
If history goes somewhere, our struggles add up and progress is real; if it is only a chain of chance events, nothing guarantees that tomorrow will be better than yesterday, and every gain can be lost. To take a position is to say whether political hope rests on the course of things or on us alone.