Progress

Progress is movement towards a perceived refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. It is central to the philosophy of progressivism, which interprets progress as the increasing positive liberty of society; it views it as primarily achievable through direct societal action, as in social enterprise or through activism, but being also through natural sociocultural evolution – that progressivism holds all human societies should strive towards.

The concept of progress was introduced in the early-19th-century social theories, especially social evolution as described by Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer. It was present in the Enlightenment'sphilosophies of history. As a goal, social progress has been advocated by varying realms of political ideologies with different theories on how it is to be achieved.