Lecture 1: The Idea of Progress: From Theodicy to History

Richard Bourke (University of Cambridge)

Followed by a wine reception at Parliament Hall, 66 South Street, KY16 9QW

These lectures are concerned with the nature of political divisions – or factions and parties – as they affect political life. As Hume said, modern parties are formed from ‘principles’, or ideas about how things ought to be organised. These ideas are, in effect, values. Politics is concerned with how to bring them about. In this it relies on an assessment of means, which implies an historical grasp of prevailing tendencies and available instruments. As we now think of this, political judgment applies itself to advancing a given course, or assisting ‘progress’. The first lecture in this series concentrates on the concept of secular progress, and traces key moments in its rise. This involves uncovering the meaning of secularisation and various understandings of the content of progress (technical, moral, political). We orientate our politics around competing visions of history pointing to improvement, stagnation and regression. Parties are the vehicles for these opposing standpoints. The second lecture will look at how they generate competing narratives and, ultimately, divergent philosophies of history.