When Cowen & Collison coined the term “progress studies” in 2019, some questioned why such a concept was needed, given the existence of economics, history, etc. They argued that an interdisciplinary approach was still useful: “Plenty of existing scholarship touches on these topics, but it takes place in a highly fragmented fashion….”
Recently I’ve been researching and outlining a chapter for my book on the topic of “Can Progress Continue?” I think the full answer to this question is an integration of history, philosophy, and economics. In particular, I’ve found it useful to incorporate:
Economic growth theory, especially the work of Solow, Romer, and Jones
I think integrating all of these puzzle pieces and perspectives results in the clearest possible answer to this important question, and I think this is true for many other questions of interest to the progress community.
Why “progress studies” is interdisciplinary
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When Cowen & Collison coined the term “progress studies” in 2019, some questioned why such a concept was needed, given the existence of economics, history, etc. They argued that an interdisciplinary approach was still useful: “Plenty of existing scholarship touches on these topics, but it takes place in a highly fragmented fashion….”
Recently I’ve been researching and outlining a chapter for my book on the topic of “Can Progress Continue?” I think the full answer to this question is an integration of history, philosophy, and economics. In particular, I’ve found it useful to incorporate:
Economic growth theory, especially the work of Solow, Romer, and Jones
The stagnation debate, including the work of Cowen and Gordon (and counterpoints by “techno-optimists” such as McAfee and Brynjolfsson)
The broader history of economic thought going back to late 18th-century thinkers such as Malthus
The economics of resources as per Julian Simon
The history of predictions of resource depletion and concerns about overpopulation
The economic history of technological shifts from one resource to another
The philosophy of humans as problem-solvers vs. resource-creators articulated by Deutsch
The philosophy of the concept of “sustainability”
Long-term trends in and future predictions of world population growth
Hard limits to very long-term growth based on physical law
I think integrating all of these puzzle pieces and perspectives results in the clearest possible answer to this important question, and I think this is true for many other questions of interest to the progress community.