The nineteenth century has often been described as the Age of Progress. The
scientific discoveries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries led to numerous
technological advances in Europe and America. These advances, in turn, made
possible the Industrial Revolution and the incredible outpouring of goods it
produced. Millions of people left the hard life of the farm, moving to cities and
working in factories. In England, for example, in 1800 only 21 percent of the
population lived in cities with a population of more than ten thousand. By 1890,
city-dwellers had become 62 percent of the population. Life in the city seemed
full of promise, and the good life seemed within reach of all.
The early nineteenth-century philosophies of Hegel and Mill epitomized this
optimism about the future. Hegel claimed that “Idea” (or “Spirit” or “Mind”) was
guiding all of history. Contradictions in thought and practice would be overcome
as history progressed. For his part, Mill wrote in his major work,Utilitarianism,
of the “progress of science [that] holds out a promise for the future.” Mill argued
that free individuals representing the “wisdom of society” could overcome the
social problems of the nineteenth century.
Yet by the middle of the century, doubts began to emerge among some
thinkers. Kierkegaard questioned the optimistic assumptions of Hegel and
expressed skepticism about the inevitability of progress. More fundamentally,
Kierkegaard claimed that Hegel’s entire system was flawed, because it assumed
an objectivity that is unavailable and a finality that does not exist within history.
For his part, Marx noted the effect of the Industrial Revolution on the factory

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