Philosophy Essay Sample on Progress

Progress is the word used to describe moving forward, or creating onward movement, although in the real world progress is more often used to define overcoming challenges, coming to terms with past events, and metaphorically moving forward in goals you may be trying to achieve.

"The greater part of progress is the desire to progress." - Seneca the Younger.

The quote above was written by the famous Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, (more commonly known as Seneca the Younger). Lucius’ work consists of lots of meaningful and well-written quotes (as you’d assume), but also has a much deeper meaning which we can use to connect to this essay. 

Yes, even though the message the quote above is leading towards is true, there comes a flaw that the reader may notice. Paraphrasing Lucius’ words, “The great part of making progress is the want to progress”, we can see an obvious flaw. What happens if we can’t see progress? As much of an Inquisitor one may sound to question a quote with no internal meaning, the question is more valid than you may think.

Seeing progress is a great benefit only a few lucky people get to see when trying to overcome a challenge, or attempting to achieve a goal. To those on the unlucky side of things, who struggle to see progress, questioning the quote above was merely their lives. Not only do I believe there is a reasonable explanation to why this happens, I believe that making progress comes down to a lot more than luck.

It simply comes down to this, Progress favors those willing to change. There is no progress without difference. How can an individual who does not change their ways move forward? Those trying to move forward yet see no change simply enough have not changed enough. If one has made changes, and thoroughly stuck through yet has seen no progress, then the change made wasn’t large enough.

It’s not about how much we change, but how critical the change is. With the help of a change critical enough, and the motivation and determination to keep the change in motion, and not returning to your old habits, It is extremely likely that progress will take into motion.

Looking back through the pages of history, Thomas Edison's many failed attempts at creating the lightbulb is a prime example of how change almost always leads to progress. Edison’s process of trying to find a suitable filament for the lightbulb is proof that change almost always leads to progress. Edison tried over 6,000 organic filaments before he made the change of using carbonized materials, after using carbonized cotton, Edison saw the first successful lightbulb, which lasted a whole 15 hours before the filament finally wore off.

After all the evidence shown above, it is evident that progress is not only a stand alone term, but the term progress and change both work together to create the beautiful ability to move forward in life, and allow individuals the ability to move past previous events, and allow us to move forward.