THE IDEA OF PROGRESS IN MODERN EUROPE

为了建立进步的观念，必须克服悲观的历史观，除其他外，悲观的历史观坚持认为当今时代总是早于过去的黄金时代，例如以罗马奥古斯都统治为代表的希腊和罗马古代时代。在欧洲，“古今之争”中的“调制解调器”们试图克服这种悲观情绪，这场争论主要发生在17世纪的法国文坛。“现代派”中的领军人物是查尔斯·佩罗和丰特内尔。佩罗在1687年开始了对博伊洛、拉方丹等人的辩论。在这场争吵中，丰特内尔的作品对“现代派”的胜利做出了最大的贡献。因此，我对丰特内尔的作品《离题的古人和现代人》(1688)进行了全面的分析。这部作品与帕卡尔未发表的文章《Pouria Traite Du vide序言》之间的类比令人印象深刻，因为丰特内尔和帕斯卡都相信人类精神的永恒进步。这场争吵对于欧洲人摆脱“文艺复兴时期的思想枷锁”是必要的一步(J.B.布里)意大利的文艺复兴引发了对亚里士多德等古代天才的崇拜。有一种危险，那就是他们可能会成为绝对的、不可逾越的权威。丰特内勒和帕斯卡都反对这一权威。在那些日子里，牛顿、波义耳和惠更斯的惊人发现支持了17世纪后半叶进步的观点。今天，我们对正在产生环境污染的技术进步持相当怀疑的态度。这也是有趣的确认，在进步的想法和千禧年的传统的“圣约翰的启示”的基础上，存在着奇怪的相似之处。

To establish the idea of progress, it was indispensable to overcome the pessimistic view of history, which Insisted among others that the present age was alwaysinferior to the golden age in the past, such as the age of Greek and Roman antiquity represented for example by the reign of Augustus in Rome. In Europe, an attempt to overcome such pessimism was made by the "Modems" in the "Quarrel betweenthe Ancients and Moderns", which was fought mainly in the French literary circles in the seventeenth century. The leading figures among the "Moderns" were Charles Perrault and Fontenelle. Perrault began the controvercyagainst Boileau, La Fontaine etc. in 1687. Throughout the quarrel it was Fontenelle's writing which contributed the most to the victory of the "Moderns". So I have fully analyzed Fontenelle's work "Digression surles Anciens et Modernes" (1688). The analogy between this work and Pacal's unpublished article "Preface pourIa traite du vide"isimpressive for m Both Fontenell and Pascal believed in the eternal progress of the human spirit. This quarrel was a step necessary for the Europeans to get rid of the "intellectual yoke of the Renaissance" (J.B.Bury). The Renaissance in Italyevoked the cult of the ancient geniuses like Aristotle. There was a danger that they might b come the absolute and unsurmountable authority. It was against this authority that both Fontenelle and Pascal fought. The for those days astonishingdiscoveries of Newton, Boyle, and Huygens butressed the idea of progress in the later part of the seventeenth century. Today we are rather sceptical about the progress of technology, which is producing environmental pollution. lt is also interesting to confirm that between the idea of progress and millenarianism based on the tradition of "St. John's Revelations" there exists a strange similarity.