Chapter VII: The Eternal Revolution Summary and Analysis

The notion of progress assumes some standard of value towards which progress is being made. This standard cannot be found in nature, as many think, since nature is totally anarchic. Nature does not say whether life is good or bad; rather, people, observing nature, impose their own standard upon it which says life is good. Some modern thinkers, then, simply see the standard as a matter of moving forward in time, as if progress happens inevitably: Whatever change happens is good. Others, like Nietzsche, hide behind vague metaphors to talk about progress—that is, they speak of "higher forms of life" without ever clarifying exactly this means. Others, still, believe that nature will take care of things and change will occur in some fashion, though they do not know when or how...