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The Illusions of Progress
"It is a pleasure to welcome this book into the English language, the more so for the general excellence of the translation and for the valuable ntroduction that Professor Stanley has given to Sorel's work. This Frenchman has been able to expose to the very core the modern idea of progress, the idea that mankind has progressed in linear fashion in the past, is now progressing, and will continue to progress indefinitely into the future, came into being in the French Enlightenment.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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April 19, 2023
This is a great book that I very much enjoyed. What Sorel is writing about is the myth of progress. The myth is propagated by the bourgeoisie in the modern period because it makes them out to be the culmination of history, better than anything that came before and the system in power one that can adapt and bring about improvement in people's lives. On top of being used to maintain the status quo, this myth is also opposed to the Ancient's ideas about history as cyclical, which Sorel views as much more favorable, it owes more than it likes to admit to its predecessors that it evolved from, it confuses various different ideas of progress with various extents of validity, it isn't even all that effective as a progressive force since it breeds reactionary views and romanticizations of the past... Of course, it is ironic that Sorel writes this work as a Marxist and that in parts he even celebrates technological progress. The translator's preface in my edition explains it nicely, he was not so much opposed to the idea of progress as much as he was to the idea of progress. It's one thing to accept the narrative of progress in the works of Marx as either true or useful, it is another thing to accept the idea of progress as it is popularly propagated, or to think that people should believe in the idea of progress at all. All of this effort from Sorel is focused on his old enemies, the bourgeoisie, parliamentarism, social democrats, pacifism...
The book is not without its problems though. Most of it is related to his style of writing. The book is not really well organized. It reads more like an anthology of different essays in which he traces the development of different ideas of progress in fields like literature, science, politics... from the age of enlightenment to the time of writing, just after WW1. This has a drawback of at parts not being exactly a page turner, a reader might get lost in the lists of French names that are thrown at him. But it also has a drawback of not expressing his main point very well and making him seem like he is contradicting himself (assuming he isn't actually contradicting himself). This has naturally led to a lot of confusion in interpretation of Sorel and the debates of whether he was a heterodox Marxist or rejecting Marx, if he was a traditionalist primitivist or a celebrator of technological development, if he was the first fascist or if certain fascists twisted his ideas to serve their own ends... All of this confusion is partly due to the complexity of his thought, partly due to him not fitting certain boxes and partly due to him simply not being clear or even being contradictory.
Another gripe I have with him are his criticisms of Marx. He tries to reconcile him with Proudhon who he's a fan of and in criticisms of Marx he projects a lot of his own idealism, seemingly missing the point of Marxism criticism of Proudhon. He also criticizes Marx's determinism or what he perceives as such and blames Hegel's influence for this. By doing so he neglects the key aspect of Marx, which is really frustrating.
Third problem with the book really isn't the authors fault and that is that the parts that put forth syndicalism as a solution aren't as relevant a hundred years later. Maybe it isn't even a problem, it is just a shame that things have deteriorated so much since then.
Still, those criticisms don't take away too much from the value of the book. Taking away more than one star from a perfect rating would be too cruel. Sorel is a brilliant and unique thinker, his works still worth reading and for me personally it was great going back to him years after reading Reflections on Violence and I am glad that I still enjoy him.
The book is not without its problems though. Most of it is related to his style of writing. The book is not really well organized. It reads more like an anthology of different essays in which he traces the development of different ideas of progress in fields like literature, science, politics... from the age of enlightenment to the time of writing, just after WW1. This has a drawback of at parts not being exactly a page turner, a reader might get lost in the lists of French names that are thrown at him. But it also has a drawback of not expressing his main point very well and making him seem like he is contradicting himself (assuming he isn't actually contradicting himself). This has naturally led to a lot of confusion in interpretation of Sorel and the debates of whether he was a heterodox Marxist or rejecting Marx, if he was a traditionalist primitivist or a celebrator of technological development, if he was the first fascist or if certain fascists twisted his ideas to serve their own ends... All of this confusion is partly due to the complexity of his thought, partly due to him not fitting certain boxes and partly due to him simply not being clear or even being contradictory.
Another gripe I have with him are his criticisms of Marx. He tries to reconcile him with Proudhon who he's a fan of and in criticisms of Marx he projects a lot of his own idealism, seemingly missing the point of Marxism criticism of Proudhon. He also criticizes Marx's determinism or what he perceives as such and blames Hegel's influence for this. By doing so he neglects the key aspect of Marx, which is really frustrating.
Third problem with the book really isn't the authors fault and that is that the parts that put forth syndicalism as a solution aren't as relevant a hundred years later. Maybe it isn't even a problem, it is just a shame that things have deteriorated so much since then.
Still, those criticisms don't take away too much from the value of the book. Taking away more than one star from a perfect rating would be too cruel. Sorel is a brilliant and unique thinker, his works still worth reading and for me personally it was great going back to him years after reading Reflections on Violence and I am glad that I still enjoy him.
Displaying 1 of 1 review