A retrospective on macroscale progressive events in history and delays imposed by resistance to progress.
Feel free to add your own historical progressive events in comments.
Here's the format:
Fire:
1.9 million B.C. - first evidence of fire-cooked food
298,000 B.C. - evidence of widespread acceptance and controlled use of fire
delay in progress - 1.602 million years
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
To gain perspective on the Progressive movement throughout history I have endeavored to compose some milestones and researched how long it took to achieve them after first proposal. This data could be used to establish an index allowing comparisons of various subgroups of humanity when applicable, or to humanity in general to gauge progressivity. The Progressivity Index I would propose measures adaptability and fitness of a group or species - a measure of their ability to adapt, grow and ultimately to survive. One could posit that this is also a measure of quality, something of which the Progressive movement has to be proud.
Tools:
5 million years ago - opposable thumbs developed in humans
2.6 million B.C. - first evidence of human tool use
** delay in use of tools - 2.4 million years
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Marshall McLuhan famously said "We shape our tools. And then our tools shape us."
The Scientific Method: Still in debate - one example:
1600 B.C. - Egyptian medical textbook - displays parallels to basic empirical methodology - applies the following components: examination, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, to the treatment of disease
1027 A.D. — In The Book of Healing, Avicenna criticizes the Aristotelian method of induction, arguing that "it does not lead to the absolute, universal, and certain premises that it purports to provide", and in its place, develops examination and experimentation as a means for scientific inquiry
** delay in applying the scientific method for medical examination - 1427 years
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
On Evolution:
6th century BCE: The scientific inquiry into the origin of species can be dated to at least the 6th century BCE, with the Greek philosopher Anaximander. Others who considered evolutionary ideas included the Greek philosopher Empedocles, the Roman philosopher-poet Lucretius, the Afro-Arab biologist Al-Jahiz, the Persian philosopher Ibn Miskawayh, the Brethren of Purity, and the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi. As biological knowledge grew in the 18th century, evolutionary ideas were set out by a few natural philosophers including Pierre Maupertuis in 1745 and Erasmus Darwin in 1796.
At the end of 1859, Charles Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species explained natural selection in detail and presented evidence leading to increasingly wide acceptance of the occurrence of evolution. Charles Darwin formulated his idea of natural selection in 1838 and was still developing his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him a similar theory, and both were presented to the Linnean Society of London in separate papers. Darwin's delay in publishing has been posited partly as fear of offending the religious community.
** delay in acceptance of evolution: roughly 2459 years and still ongoing by some, but generally accepted by those who accept evidence-based logic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Women's Suffrage: (Modern Era) - Women's suffrage has been granted at various times in various countries throughout the world, and in many countries it was granted before universal suffrage.
1718 - 1771 A.D. In Sweden's Age of Liberty, women could vote if they were tax-paying guild members.
1979 - Women’s suffrage is explicitly stated as a right under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted by the United Nations.
** delay in generally allowing women the right to vote after first granted: 261 years
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Abolition of Slavery:
10,000 years ago: Slavery can be traced back to the time of transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers.
In East Asia, abolitionism was evidenced in, for instance, the writings of Yu Hyongwon, a seventeenth-century Korean Confucian scholar who wrote extensively against slave-holding in seventeenth-century Korea.
The existence of human slavery was apparently not a problem for at least 9,600 years.
The first American movement to abolish slavery came in the spring of 1688 when German and Dutch Quakers of Mennonite descent in Germantown, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia) wrote a two-page condemnation of the practice and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, the Society of Friends. Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, was an unusually early, clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process that finally led to the banning of slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and in the state of Pennsylvania(1780). Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation became law in 1863.
** delay in abolition of slavery since first proposed: 175 years in America (from 1688 to 1863)
- - persistent - world wide there remain an estimated 27 million enslaved human beings
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
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Abolition of Capital Punishment:
The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded history. Most historical records and various primitive tribal practices indicate that the death penalty was a part of their justice system.
The death penalty was banned in China between 747 and 759. In Japan, Emperor Saga abolished the death penalty in 818 under the influence of Shinto and it lasted until 1156. Therefore, capital punishment was not executed for 338 years in ancient Japan. In England, a public statement of opposition was included in The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards, written in 1395. Sir Thomas More's Utopia, published in 1516, debated the benefits of the death penalty in dialogue form, coming to no firm conclusion. More recent opposition to the death penalty stemmed from the book of the Italian Cesare Beccaria Dei Delitti e Delle Pene ("On Crimes and Punishments"), published in 1764.
Since World War II there has been a trend toward abolishing the death penalty. In 1977, 16 countries were abolitionist. According to information published by Amnesty International in 2010, 95 countries had abolished capital punishment altogether, 9 had done so for all offences except under special circumstances, and 35 had not used it for at least 10 years or were under a moratorium. The other 58 retained the death penalty in active use.
According to Amnesty International, at least 714 executions were known to have been carried out in 18 countries in 2009. In addition, there are countries which do not publish information on the use of capital punishment, most significantly China, which is estimated to execute hundreds of people each year. At least 17,000 people worldwide were under sentence of death at the beginning of 2010.
** delay in abolishing the death penalty since first proposed: at least 1263 years and counting for many countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Pacifism:
First proposed: As far back as recorded history in multiple societies with notable exception of classical Greeks.
Present day - an ongoing struggle. Projection of fear, vengeance and retribution still drive international affairs with a few exceptions.
** delay in acceptance of pacifism: persistent
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
On Climate Change: The theory that humankind is responsible for altering global climate factors.
1959 AD: An example of a prediction that has been tested comes from 1959, when Dr. Bert Bolin, in a speech to the National Academy of Sciences, predicted that by the year 2000, there would be a 25% increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere compared to the levels in 1859. This prediction has proved to be an underestimate. The actual increase by 2000 was about 29%.
According to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, "the earth would warm by 8 degrees Celsius (14.4 degrees Fahrenheit) if humans use the entire planet's available fossil fuels by the year 2300.
Presently the scientific consensus on climate change is that human activity is very likely the cause for the rapid increase in global average temperatures over the past several decades. Consequently, the debate has largely shifted onto ways to reduce further human impact and to find ways to adapt to change that has already occurred.
** delay in acceptance of human activity as causative of global warming; ~50 years and ongoing for almost entirely political reasons
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
On Animal Sentience: The theory that other species besides humans possess sentience and experience distress and pain; the related concept that perhaps humans do not have dominion over all other species on the planet.
6th century BCE: Eastern religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism recognize nonhumans as sentient beings.
17th century AD - Thomas Tryon, a self-proclaimed Pythagorean, raised the issue of non-human suffering. Soon thereafter, many philosophers used the anatomical discoveries of the Enlightenment as a reason to include animals in what philosophers call "sympatheia", the principle of who or what deserves sympathy. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography identifies Tryon's writings as an influence in his decision to try vegetarianism; later in the book, he reverts to eating meat while still following Tryon's basic philosophy. Joseph Ritson coupled Tryon's work with Rousseau's for "Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food" as many Rousseauists became vegetarian. Voltaire compared the Hindu treatment of animals to how Europe's emperors and popes treated even their fellow men, praising the former and heaping shame upon the latter; in the 17th century Pierre Gassendi, and Francis Bacon also advocated vegetarianism.
In 1997 the concept of animal sentience was written into the basic law of the European Union. The legally-binding Protocol annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam recognizes that animals are "sentient beings", and requires the EU and its Member States to "pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals".
Modern research finds several species with larger brains (whales, dolphins) and greater brain to body size ratios (shrews) than humans. TIME, August 16, 2010 - "Inside the Minds of Animals"
** delay in acceptance of concept of animal sentience: Persistent based on percentage of humans practicing vegetarianism - 3-4 % of Americans, up to 33% of Indians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
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