Progress

The ideas of progress and human perfectibility, concepts basic to the temper of the 18th century, were expressed most clearly by the Marquis de Condorcet, a member of the circle of 'philosophes' around Voltaire.  In his famous "Progress of the Human Mind" (1794) Condorcet asserts that there are no limits to human perfectibility and declares that progress will come by abolishing inequalities between nations, by securing equality for all men within nations, and by improving the human race in mind and body.

Nandy, Milon, Terms & Theories in Politics, Government International Relations and the Humanities, EurAsia-Pacific Books, 1993.