Scrape wikipedia-science: 360 new, 870 updated, 1268 total (kb-cron)

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritional_psychiatry-0.md

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+title: "Nutritional psychiatry"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritional_psychiatry"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:58:17.619040+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Nutritional psychiatry is an emerging field that investigates the complex relationship between an individual's diet, nutrient intake, and mental health. The discipline integrates clinical principles of psychiatry to explore how nutritional strategies can be utilized for both the prevention and treatment of various mental health disorders.
+
+
+== Nutrition and mental health ==
+In the field of nutritional psychiatry, there is ongoing research about how different diet patterns influence the development or symptoms of psychiatric conditions, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. There is also research about how various diets could be potential avenues for treatment of mental health conditions.
+In addition, nutrition psychiatry acknowledges the importance of quality diet in relation to improved mood regulation. Research suggests that a quality diet is crucial for developing and maintaining a healthy brain. A healthy diet is generally characterized by a high intake of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, fish, and limited processed foods. Conversely, diets in high processed foods, fats and sugars are associated with anxiety and depression. It is noted that the relationship between diet and mental health is "multi-directional," as people experiencing mental illness may face various barriers that make it difficult to adhere to a balanced diet.
+A state of "chronic low-grade inflammation" has been found to play a role in the development of many diseases that affect the brain, including mental disorders and neurodegenerative disorders. Thus, the “Mediterranean diet" is a specific dietary pattern of interest for researchers given its anti-inflammatory effects. It emphasizes vegetables, fruits, olive oil, and limited red meat and sugar. In contrast, the "Western diet" is seen as pro-inflammatory and contains more refined sugars, saturated fat, and sodium.
+Furthermore, the field recognizes that micronutrient deficiencies, especially those involving essential B vitamins (B12 and folate), can impair cognition and contribute to psychiatric symptoms, including fatigue and depression. This evidence has led to the successful investigation of dietary improvement programs in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). These trials demonstrate that structured nutritional interventions can effectively serve as a valuable treatment to help mitigate symptoms in individuals with moderate to severe depression.
+
+
+=== Depression ===
+There are many factors that have been found to contribute to depression. Some of these include inflammation, oxidative stress, and the brain-gut microbiome system.
+A Mediterranean diet has been shown to improve depression. Vitamin D supplementation and fish oil supplementation are also thought to reduce levels of inflammation. Findings suggest that adding vitamin D and fish oil supplements to an existing treatment for depression could have benefits. Ultra-processed foods are also associated with depression.
+The gut microbiome has also been shown to influence brain health. The presence of different species of bacteria in the gut will change depending on type of diet pattern, such as a Western versus a Mediterranean diet. Studies have shown that "prebiotic, probiotic, or synbiotic treatment" can reduce depressive symptoms. These treatments can increase the diversity of bacteria in the gut and enhance their survival.
+
+
+=== Anxiety ===
+A Mediterranean diet, along with "more fruits and vegetables, omega-3 fatty acids, 'healthy' dietary patterns, caloric restriction, breakfast consumption, ketogenic diet, broad-spectrum micronutrient supplementation, zinc, magnesium and selenium, probiotics, and a range of phytochemicals" is associated with less anxiety. Meanwhile, dietary factors associated with increased anxiety include diets high in saturated fats and sugar as well as consuming a high amount of ultra-processed foods.
+
+
+=== Other mental health disorders ===
+Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are also associated with inflammation. While more studies are needed, a Mediterranean diet has been shown to be beneficial in bipolar disorder and in schizophrenia.
+It is possible that bipolar disorder symptoms could also be improved by diet, specifically by omega-3 fatty acids, probiotics, and coenzyme Q supplements. A well-balanced diet overall is protective in bipolar disorder, but further research is required to determine whether a specific supplement regimen should become standard.
+
+
+== Evolutionary mismatch ==
+It is also known that modern lifestyle changes have shifted humans away from "traditional dietary patterns," and this may play a role in the development of mental health disorders. Logan and Jacka tell us about an "evolutionary mismatch," stating that diets nowadays have more sodium, saturated fats, and refined sugars. This is in comparison to the "ancestral diets" of humans that was largely plant- and animal-based, with little added fats or sugar. Nutritional psychiatry can be used to explore the fields of biological and environmental factors that influence the mental health that we face today.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obshchestvovedeniye-0.md

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+title: "Obshchestvovedeniye"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obshchestvovedeniye"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:58:18.785895+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Obshestvovédeny or Obshchestvovédeniye (Russian: Обществоведение) is a social science and eponymous academic subject in a Soviet school. As a subject, it was taught from the 1960s to 1991 throughout the USSR and covered all the three constituent parts of Marxism–Leninism. These component parts of Marxism, according to Lenin and his Soviet adherents, are Marxist-Leninist philosophy (dialectical and historical materialism), political economy, and scientific communism.
+
+
+== Overview ==
+
+
+=== Soviet Union ===
+For the first time the school program was approved by the People's Commissariat for Education in 1925. The peculiarity of the subject was to develop a system of views on the world among students of secondary schools, covering all the phenomena occurring in it and giving students a unified understanding and explanation of these phenomena through the prism of Marxist-Leninist philosophy (In other words, the subject was also a complex of social Sciences, but from a Marxist point of view). In the USSR education system, social studies was a mandatory course for all senior-class secondary-school students and represented the world as Soviet officials wanted their young people to see and understand it.  In order to indoctrinate students about Communism, the course contained "much distortion, half-truth, and deliberate falsification." The Soviet textbook of social studies included:
+
+1. Dialectical and historical materialism — the basis of the scientific worldview.
+2. Socialism — the first phase of Communist society.
+3. The Communist party — the leading and guiding force of Soviet society.
+4. Ways of gradual development of socialism into communism.
+5. XX century — the century of the triumph of communism.
+
+
+=== Russia ===
+After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the Russian school and CIS schools since 1992 the subject was canceled. The factual information previously contained in the subject began to be taught within the framework of history.
+Since 2000, the subject has been returned to secondary school as a complex of Sciences, including: philosophy, sociology, social psychology, law, economics and political science.
+As an independent educational subject has been preserved in Belarus.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Citizenship education
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Bibliography ==
+Articles
+Tamara Graczykowska. (1999). "Słownictwo pola semantycznego "Edukacja i wychowanie" w moskiewskiej gazecie "Trybuna Radziecka" z lat 1927–1938" (PDF). Acta Polono-Ruthenica (in Polish). Stuttgart. ISSN 1427-549X.
+Wojciech Siegień (2016). Naprzód ku przeszłości! Nauczanie historii a zmiany ideologii państwowej w Rosji na początku XXI wieku. Forum Oświatowe, 28 (2), 185–202.
+Yevgeny Bukhtoyarov (2015). The emergence of Obshestvovedeny (in Russian). (15.08.2015)
+Books
+O. B. Soboleva. (2020). Методика обучения обществознанию : учебник и практикум для вузов (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Юрайт. ISBN 978-5-534-09466-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-21. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
+
+
+== External links ==
+Obshchestvovedenie (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Politizdat. 1982. ISBN 3-515-07560-7.
+Shakhnazarov, Georgy, ed. (1964). Social Science: A Textbook for Soviet Secondary Schools. U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Technical Services, Joint Publications Research Service(A translation of the Russian-language book "Obshchestvovedeniye"){{cite book}}:  CS1 maint: postscript (link)

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_science-0.md

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+title: "Occupational science"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_science"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Occupational science is a discipline dedicated to the study of humans as "doers" or "occupational beings". As used here, the term "occupation" refers to the intentional or goal-directed activities that characterize daily human life as well as the characteristics and patterns of purposeful activity that occur over lifetimes.
+
+
+== History ==
+Occupational science evolved as a loosely organized effort by many scholars in different disciplines to understand human time use. It was named and given additional impetus in 1989 by a team of faculty at the University of Southern California (USC) led by Dr. Elizabeth Yerxa, who had been influenced by the work of graduate students under the supervision of Mary Reilly at the same university.  Since its formal beginning at that time, which coincided with the establishment of a Ph.D. program in Occupational Science at USC; occupational science has evolved as an additional source of research to expand empirical knowledge underlying the profession of occupational therapy.
+
+
+== Links between occupational science and occupational therapy ==
+Occupational science was developed by scholars (mainly from the profession of occupational therapy) who drew from original ideas predating the founding of occupational therapy. It may thus be considered as a developing or emerging academic discipline. The substrates (or underlying dimensions) of occupation (form, function, and meaning) are difficult to observe and quantify, and thus require and benefit from a multidisciplinary approach. While both occupational science and occupational therapy are rooted in systems theory and holistic views of human agency, the methods for observing and understanding an occupation's form (how something is done), function (its purpose), and meaning (how it is understood and experienced by the doer) are not always holistic in approach. For instance, disciplines such as biomechanics and psychology inform occupational science but, individually, are not necessarily concerned about how their explanations contribute to an integrated understanding of the factors collectively influencing a person's daily life. Professional practice in occupational therapy can prompt new ideas and spark potential research within the discipline of occupational science; although typically, knowledge from academic disciplines precedes the application of such knowledge in applied fields.  Occupational science has the capacity to provide insight into the primary modality of occupational therapy (occupation) through studying the consequences of participation in occupation and its therapeutic benefits.  Reciprocally, occupational therapy research may provide insights into how human agency and the factors influencing it change under conditions of illness, disability or therapeutic intervention. Additional viewpoints about these relationships may be found in documents describing relationships between occupational science and occupational therapy that have been published by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) and the Society for the Study of Occupation in the United States (SSO:USA). Research has been reported that begins to delineate key or essential concepts from occupational science as they pertain to the practice of occupational therapy.  Further refinement of this work may help focus research initiatives in occupational science to guide educators, scientists, and practitioners to advance the evidence-based use of occupation in occupational therapy practice.
+
+
+== Relationships between human occupation and health and well-being ==
+Beyond the well-documented benefits of regular physical activity, occupations that engender purpose, competence and self esteem may provide psychological benefits related to satisfying needs for meaning.  Living situations that limit or restrict participation in meaningful occupations (such as geographic isolation, refugeeism or incarceration) or lead to participation in harmful occupations, (such as substance abuse, deviant or risky behaviors), can lead to "illness, isolation and despair," or even death.  However, participation in occupations shown to be beneficial or restorative can enhance health.  Through participation in engaging or restorative occupations, the mental state of individuals can be improved and result in feelings of regeneration. Sleep, an area of occupation, not only regenerates physical and cognitive processes, but also is required for satisfactory occupational functioning. Participating in other relaxing or tension-reducing occupations, such as (for example) reading a book, getting a massage, going for a walk, exercising, or pursuing an engaging hobby; may provide physical, cognitive and mental restoration, and stress reduction.
+Empirical research linking the perceived psychological and physiological benefits of participation in different types of daily human occupation is ongoing. Questions about the nature of different dimensions of human occupation and their influences on human identity, behavior and states of being are viewed by occupational scientists as suitable areas of investigation. Developmental theorists have long hypothesized that the occupations of childhood and activity related events characteristic of different stages of adulthood are critical factors in physical, cognitive and psychological growth and maturation.  
+Similarly, there is ongoing interest in how patterns of daily time use, including habits, routines, and lifestyles, may be related to states of well-being. Adolf Meyer, a prominent early psychiatrist and advocate for occupational therapy in the United States, was among the first to speculate that a regular pattern, rhythm or flow of daily occupations contributed to mental health.  Meyer also postulated that the life history of his patients could be used to identify situational conditions and events that helped explain their disorders, thus providing an avenue for prevention through community interventions to promote public health (mental hygiene).
+
+
+== Academic application ==
+The development of occupational science as an academic discipline has been advanced through the creation of several university-based programs of study leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field. Disciplines within which occupational scientists can be found include architecture, engineering, education, marketing,  psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, occupational therapy, public health, and geography. There are several national, regional and international societies dedicated to promoting the evolution of this specialized area of human science. Academic journals containing content directly relevant to occupational science include the Journal of Occupational Science, OTJR: Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, Journal of Happiness Studies, 'Quality of Life Research, Applied Research in Quality of Life, Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, The Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy,  the American Journal of Occupational Therapy and various other occupational therapy journals.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Occupational therapist
+Occupational therapy
+Occupational justice
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Journal of Occupational Science
+Society for the Study of Occupation: USA
+Occupation UK
+Canadian Society of Occupational Scientists
+About Occupational Science

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+title: "Paedology"
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+category: "reference"
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+---
+
+Paedology (also spelled pedology or paidology) is the study of children's behavior and development. 
+The field may be considered distinct from pedagogy, the art or science of teaching, and pediatrics, the field of medicine relating to children. However, pedology is not commonly recognized as a distinct field of study; therefore, many people who could be described as pedologists are instead described as pedagogues, pediatricians, psychologists, etc. A reason for this is because one could make contributions to the field of pedology while also making contributions to other fields. For example, Jean Piaget made contributions to the study of pedology in his theories of the cognitive development of children; however, Piaget has more commonly been recognized as a developmental psychologist.
+
+
+== Origins of paedology ==
+The origins of this trend in psychology and pedagogy go back to the end of the 18th century with the separation of a branch of psychology that would form the basis of pedagogy, a pedagogic psychology or "experimental pedagogic psychology", "experimental pedagogy", "experimental education".
+G. Stanley Hall (1844–1924) fostered pedology as a separate study, and also became instrumental in the development of modern educational psychology.  An American researcher, Oscar Chrisman, proposed the term "pedology" in 1893. At the end of the 19th century, pedology as a comprehensive study of the child came to prominence in Europe as an attempt to create a study of children in the manner of natural sciences. In 1909 Professor Kazimierz Twardowski organized a Pedological Society in Lviv, Austro-Hungary (now Ukraine). In 1910 a similar society was organized in Kraków. In 1911 the first World Congress in Pedology took place in Brussels, Belgium, with attendants from 22 countries.
+World War I (1914–1918) effectively put an end to the development of this study in Western Europe.
+Since pedology as a branch of science never reached its maturity, there is no common established understanding as to the scope or instruments of pedology.
+Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland became the first university in the United States to offer a bachelor's degree in pedology. A 2014 document from the university refers to "the pedology major (now known as child and adolescent studies)". At many universities in the United States, pedological study is generally classified under the major "child development."
+
+
+== Pedology in the Soviet Union ==
+In Russian Empire a prominent developer of the field was Aleksandr Petrovich Nechayev in St. Petersburg, who in 1901 created the laboratory of experimental pedagogical psychology. Soviet pedology is traditionally thought to be founded by the efforts of Vladimir Bekhterev; in particular, in 1918 he founded the Institute of Pedology as part of psychological institutions united into the Institute for Study of Brain and Psychical Activity.
+This science was intensively pursued in 1920s–1930s in the Soviet Union. A journal Pedologiya ("Педология") was issued. Lev Vygotsky and Pavel Blonsky were among its prominent supporters.
+While many works of pedologists were of considerable value, the approach was severely criticized for over-enthusiastic but poorly grounded approach of testing for predicting a child's mental development, in addition to estimating its status.
+It was officially condemned in 1936 after a special decree of VKP(b) Central Committee "On Pedological Perversions in the System of Narkomproses" on July 4, 1936.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+Depaepe, M. (1985). "Science, technology, and paedology: The concept of science at the Faculte Internationale de Pedologie in Brussels (1912–1914)." Scientia Paedogica Experimentalis, 1, 14–28.
+Depaepe, M. (1992). "Experimental Research in Education 1890–1940: historical processes behind the development of a discipline in western Europe and the United States." Aspects of Education, Journal of the Institute of Education, University of Hull, 42, pp. 67–93.
+Depaepe, M. (1993). "Zum Wohl des Kindes? Pädologie, pädagogische Psychologie und experimentelle Pädagogik in Europa und den USA, 1890–1940." Leuven: Universitaire Pers/Weinheim: Deutscher Studienverlag.
+
+
+== External links ==
+
+P.Ya.Shvartsman, I.V.Kuznetsova, Pedology: A Repressed Science

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+title: "Platform capitalism"
+chunk: 1/1
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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+---
+
+Platform capitalism refers to the activities of companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Uber, Airbnb, Amazon and others to operate as platforms. In this business model both hardware and software are used as a foundation (platform) for other actors to conduct their own business.
+Platform capitalism has been both heralded as beneficial and denounced as detrimental by various authors. The trends identified in platform capitalism have similarities with those described under the heading of surveillance capitalism. Technology companies build platforms that entire industries rely on, and those industries can easily collapse due to the decisions of those technology companies.
+The possible effect of platform capitalism on open science has been discussed.
+Platform capitalism has been contrasted with platform cooperativism. Companies that try to focus on fairness and sharing, instead of just profit motive, are described as cooperatives, whereas more traditional and common companies that focus solely on profit, like Airbnb and Uber, are platform capitalists (or cooperativist platforms vs capitalist platforms). In turn, projects like Wikipedia, which rely on unpaid labor of volunteers, can be classified as commons-based peer-production initiatives.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Enshittification
+Platform economy
+
+
+== References ==

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+title: "Praxeology"
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+---
+
+In philosophy, praxeology or praxiology (; from Ancient Greek  πρᾶξις (praxis) 'deed, action' and  -λογία (-logia) 'study of') is the theory of human action, based on the notion that humans engage in purposeful behavior, contrary to reflexive behavior and other unintentional behavior.
+French social philosopher Alfred Espinas gave the term its modern meaning, and praxeology was developed independently by two principal groups: the Austrian school, led by Ludwig von Mises, and the Polish school, led by Tadeusz Kotarbiński.
+
+
+== Origin and etymology ==
+Coinage of the word praxeology (praxéologie) is often credited to Louis Bourdeau, the French author of a classification of the sciences, which he published in his Théorie des sciences. Plan de science intégrale in 1882:
+
+On account of their dual natures of specialty and generality, these functions should be the subject of a separate science. Some of its parts have been studied for a long time, because this kind of research, in which man could be the main subject, has always presented the greatest interest. Physiology, hygiene, medicine, psychology, animal history, human history, political economy, morality, etc. represent fragments of a science that we would like to establish, but as fragments scattered and uncoordinated have remained until now only parts of particular sciences. They should be joined together and made whole in order to highlight the order of the whole and its unity. Now you have a science, so far unnamed, which we propose to call Praxeology (from πραξις, action), or by referring to the influence of the environment, Mesology (from μεσος, environment).
+However, the term was used at least once previously (with a slight spelling difference), in 1608, by Clemens Timpler in his Philosophiae practicae systema methodicum:
+
+There was Aretology: Following that Praxiology: which is the second part of the Ethics, in general, commenting on the actions of the moral virtues.
+It was later mentioned by Robert Flint in 1904 in a review of Bourdeau's Théorie des sciences.
+Ludwig von Mises was influenced by several theories in forming his work on praxeology, including Immanuel Kant's works, Max Weber's work on methodological individualism, and Carl Menger's development of the subjective theory of value.
+Philosopher of science Mario Bunge published works of systematic philosophy that included contributions to praxeology.
+
+
+== Austrian economics ==
+
+Austrian economics in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises relies heavily on praxeology in the development of its economic theories. Mises considered economics to be a sub-discipline of praxeology. Austrian School economists, following Mises, use praxeology and deduction, rather than empirical studies, to determine economic principles. According to these theorists, with the action axiom as the starting point, it is possible to draw conclusions about human behavior that are both objective and universal. For example, the notion that humans engage in acts of choice implies that they have preferences, and this must be true for anyone who exhibits intentional behavior.
+Advocates of praxeology also say that it provides insights for the field of ethics.
+
+
+=== Subdivisions ===
+In 1951, Murray Rothbard divided the subfields of praxeology as follows:
+
+A. The Theory of the Isolated Individual (Crusoe Economics)
+B. The Theory of Voluntary Interpersonal Exchange (Catallactics, or the Economics of the Market)
+1. Barter
+2. With Medium of Exchange
+a. On the Unhampered Market
+b. Effects of Violent Intervention with the Market
+c. Effects of Violent Abolition of the Market (Socialism)
+C. The Theory of War – Hostile Action
+D. The Theory of Games (Game theory) (e.g., von Neumann and Morgenstern)
+E. Unknown
+At the time, topics C, D, and E were regarded by Rothbard as open research problems.
+
+
+=== Criticisms ===
+Thomas Mayer has argued that, because praxeology rejects positivism and empiricism in the development of theories, it constitutes nothing less than a rejection of the scientific method. For Mayer, this invalidates the methodologies of the Austrian school of economics. Austrians argue that empirical data itself is insufficient to describe economics; that consequently empirical data cannot falsify economic theory; that positivism cannot predict or explain human action; and that the methodological requirements of positivism are impossible to obtain for economic questions. Ludwig von Mises in particular argued against empiricist approaches to the social sciences in general, because human events are unique and non-repeatable, whereas experiments in the physical sciences are necessarily reproducible.
+However, economist Antony Davies argues that because statistical tests are predicated on the independent development of theory, some form of praxeology is essential for model selection; conversely, praxeology can illustrate surprising philosophical consequences of economic models.
+Argentine-Canadian philosopher Mario Bunge dismissed von Mises's version of praxeology as "nothing but the principle of maximization of subjective utility—a fancy version of egoism". Bunge, who was also a fierce critic of pseudoscience, warned that when "conceived in extremely general terms and detached from both ethics and science, praxiology has hardly any practical value".
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+
+
+=== Austrian school ===
+Selgin, George A. (December 1988). "Praxeology and understanding: an analysis of the controversy in Austrian Economics". The Review of Austrian Economics. 2 (1): 19–58. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.378.1506. doi:10.1007/BF01539297. S2CID 15604266.
+Smith, George H. (2008). "Praxeology". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications; Cato Institute. pp. 387–388. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n239. ISBN 978-1412965804. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024.
+
+
+=== Polish school ===
+Gasparski, Wojciech W. (1992–). Praxiology: The International Annual of Practical Philosophy and Methodology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. OCLC 611063114
+Kotarbiński, Tadeusz (1965) [1955]. Praxiology: An Introduction to the Sciences of Efficient Action. Oxford; New York: Pergamon Press. ISBN 978-0080101101. OCLC 825097.

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+
+Progress is movement towards a perceived refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. It is central to the philosophy of progressivism, which interprets progress as the set of advancements in technology, science, and social organization – the latter being generally achieved through direct societal action, as in social enterprise or through activism, but being also attainable through natural sociocultural evolution – that progressivism holds all human societies should strive towards.
+The concept of progress was introduced in the early-19th-century social theories, especially social evolution as described by Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer. It was present in the Enlightenment's philosophies of history. As a goal, social progress has been advocated by varying realms of political ideologies with different theories on how it is to be achieved.
+
+== Measuring progress ==
+Specific indicators for measuring progress can range from economic data, technical innovations, change in the political or legal system, and questions bearing on individual life chances, such as life expectancy and risk of disease and disability.
+GDP growth has become a key orientation for politics and is often taken as a key figure to evaluate a politician's performance. However, GDP has a number of flaws that make it an imperfect measure of progress, especially for developed countries. For example, environmental damage is not taken into account nor is the sustainability of economic activity. Wikiprogress has been set up to share information on evaluating societal progress. It aims to facilitate the exchange of ideas, initiatives and knowledge. HumanProgress.org is another online resource that seeks to compile data on different measures of societal progress.
+
+Our World in Data is a scientific online publication, based at the University of Oxford, that studies how to make progress against large global problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality.
+The mission of Our World in Data is to present "research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems".
+The Social Progress Index is a tool developed by the International Organization Imperative Social Progress, which measures the extent to which countries cover social and environmental needs of its citizenry. There are fifty-two indicators in three areas or dimensions: Basic Human Needs, and Foundations of Wellbeing and Opportunities which show the relative performance of nations.
+Indices that can be used to measure progress include:
+
+== Scientific progress ==
+
+Scientific progress is the idea that the scientific community learns more over time, which causes a body of scientific knowledge to accumulate.  The chemists in the 19th century knew less about chemistry than the chemists in the 20th century, and they in turn knew less than the chemists in the 21st century. Looking forward, today's chemists reasonably expect that chemists in future centuries will know more than they do.
+From the 18th century through late 20th century, the history of science, especially of the physical and biological sciences, was often presented as a progressive accumulation of knowledge, in which true theories replaced false beliefs. Some more recent historical interpretations, such as those of Thomas Kuhn, tend to portray the history of science in terms of competing paradigms or conceptual systems in a wider matrix of intellectual, cultural, economic and political trends. These interpretations, however, have met with opposition for they also portray the history of science as an incoherent system of incommensurable paradigms, not leading to any scientific progress, but only to the illusion of progress.
+Whether other intellectual disciplines make progress in the same way as the sciences is a matter of debate. For example, one might expect that today's historians know more about global history than their ancient counterparts (consider the histories of Herodotus). Yet, knowledge can be lost through the passage of time, or the criteria for evaluating what is worth knowing can change. Similarly, there is considerable disagreement over whether fields such as philosophy make progress - or even whether they aim at accumulating knowledge in the same way as the sciences.
+
+== Social progress ==
+
+Aspects of social progress, as described by Condorcet, have included the disappearance of slavery, the rise of literacy, the lessening of inequalities between the sexes, reforms of harsh prisons and the decline of poverty. The social progress of a society can be measured based on factors such as its ability to address fundamental human needs, help citizens improve their quality of life, and provide opportunities for citizens to succeed.
+Social progress is often improved by increases in GDP, although other factors are also relevant. An imbalance between economic and social progress hinders further economic progress, and can lead to political instability. Where there is an imbalance between economic growth and social progress, political instability and unrest often arise. Lagging social progress also holds back economic growth in these and other countries that fail to address human needs, build social capital, and create opportunity for their citizens.

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+
+=== Status of women ===
+How progress improved the status of women in traditional society was a major theme of historians starting in the Enlightenment and continuing to today. British theorists William Robertson (1721–1793) and Edmund Burke (1729–1797), along with many of their contemporaries, remained committed to Christian- and republican-based conceptions of virtue, while working within a new Enlightenment paradigm. The political agenda related beauty, taste, and morality to the imperatives and needs of modern societies of a high level of sophistication and differentiation. Two themes in the work of Robertson and Burke—the nature of women in 'savage' and 'civilized' societies and 'beauty in distress'—reveals how long-held convictions about the character of women, especially with regard to their capacity and right to appear in the public domain, were modified and adjusted to the idea of progress and became central to modern European civilization.
+Classics experts have examined the status of women in the ancient world, concluding that in the Roman Empire, with its superior social organization, internal peace, and rule of law, allowed women to enjoy a somewhat better standing than in ancient Greece, where women were distinctly inferior. The inferior status of women in traditional China has raised the issue of whether the idea of progress requires a thoroughgoing rejection of traditionalism—a belief held by many Chinese reformers in the early 20th century.
+Historians Leo Marx and Bruce Mazlish asking, "should we in fact abandon the idea of progress as a view of the past," answer that there is no doubt "that the status of women has improved markedly" in cultures that have adopted the Enlightenment idea of progress.
+
+== Modernization ==

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+Modernization was promoted by classical liberals in the 19th and 20th centuries, who called for the rapid modernization of the economy and society to remove the traditional hindrances to free markets and free movements of people. During the Enlightenment in Europe social commentators and philosophers began to realize that people themselves could change society and change their way of life. Instead of being made completely by gods, there was increasing room for the idea that people themselves made their own society—and not only that, as Giambattista Vico argued, because people made their own society, they could also fully comprehend it. This gave rise to new sciences, or proto-sciences, which claimed to provide new scientific knowledge about what society was like, and how one may change it for the better. In turn, this gave rise to progressive opinion, in contrast with conservational opinion. The social conservationists were skeptical about panaceas for social ills. According to conservatives, attempts to radically remake society normally make things worse. Edmund Burke was the leading exponent of this, although later-day liberals like Friedrich Hayek have espoused similar views. They argue that society changes organically and naturally, and that grand plans for the remaking of society, like the French Revolution, National Socialism and Communism hurt society by removing the traditional constraints on the exercise of power. The scientific advances of the 16th and 17th centuries provided a basis for Francis Bacon's book the New Atlantis. In the 17th century, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle described progress with respect to arts and the sciences, saying that each age has the advantage of not having to rediscover what was accomplished in preceding ages. The epistemology of John Locke provided further support and was popularized by the Encyclopedists Diderot, Holbach, and Condorcet. Locke had a powerful influence on the American Founding Fathers. The first complete statement of progress is that of Turgot, in his "A Philosophical Review of the Successive Advances of the Human Mind" (1750). For Turgot, progress covers not only the arts and sciences but, on their base, the whole of culture—manner, mores, institutions, legal codes, economy, and society. Condorcet predicted the disappearance of slavery, the rise of literacy, the lessening of inequalities between the sexes, reforms of harsh prisons and the decline of poverty. John Stuart Mill's (1806–1873) ethical and political thought demonstrated faith in the power of ideas and of intellectual education for improving human nature or behavior. For those who do not share this faith the idea of progress becomes questionable. Alfred Marshall (1842–1924), a British economist of the early 20th century, was a proponent of classical liberalism. In his highly influential Principles of Economics (1890), he was deeply interested in human progress and in what is now called sustainable development. For Marshall, the importance of wealth lay in its ability to promote the physical, mental, and moral health of the general population. After World War II, the modernization and development programs undertaken in the Third World were typically based on the idea of progress. In Russia the notion of progress was first imported from the West by Peter the Great (1672–1725). An absolute ruler, he used the concept to modernize Russia and to legitimize his monarchy (unlike its usage in Western Europe, where it was primarily associated with political opposition). By the early 19th century, the notion of progress was being taken up by Russian intellectuals and was no longer accepted as legitimate by the tsars. Four schools of thought on progress emerged in 19th-century Russia: conservative (reactionary), religious, liberal, and socialist—the latter winning out in the form of Bolshevist materialism. The intellectual leaders of the American Revolution, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, were immersed in Enlightenment thought and believed the idea of progress meant that they could reorganize the political system to the benefit of the human condition; both for Americans and also, as Jefferson put it, for an "Empire of Liberty" that would benefit all mankind. In particular, Adams wrote “I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”
+Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810–1884) was one of the most influential political theorists in Argentina. Economic liberalism was the key to his idea of progress. He promoted faith in progress, while chiding fellow Latin Americans for blind copying of United States and Europe models. He hoped for progress through promotion of immigration, education, and a moderate type of federalism and republicanism that might serve as a transition in Argentina to true democracy. In Mexico, José María Luis Mora (1794–1850) was a leader of classical liberalism in the first generation after independence, leading the battle against the conservative trinity of the army, the church, and the hacendados. He envisioned progress as both a process of human development by the search for philosophical truth and as the introduction of an era of material prosperity by technological advancement. His plan for Mexican reform demanded a republican government bolstered by widespread popular education free of clerical control, confiscation and sale of ecclesiastical lands as a means of redistributing income and clearing government debts, and effective control of a reduced military force by the government. Mora also demanded the establishment of legal equality between native Mexicans and foreign residents. His program, untried in his lifetime, became the key element in the Mexican Constitution of 1857. In Italy, the idea that progress in science and technology would lead to solutions for human ills was connected to the nationalism that united the country in 1860. The Piedmontese Prime Minister Camillo Cavour envisaged the railways as a major factor in the modernization and unification of the Italian peninsula. The new Kingdom of Italy, formed in 1861, worked to speed up the processes of modernization and industrialization that had begun in the north, but were slow to arrive in the Papal States and central Italy, and were nowhere in sight in the "Mezzogiorno" (that is, Southern Italy and Sicily). The government sought to combat the backwardness of the poorer regions in the south and work towards augmenting the size and quality of the newly created Italian army so that it could compete on an equal footing with the powerful nations of Europe. In the same period, the government was legislating in favour of public education to fight the great problem of illiteracy, upgrade the teaching classes, improve existing schools, and procure the funds needed for social hygiene and care of the body as factors in the physical and moral regeneration of the race. In China, in the 20th century the Kuomintang or Nationalist party, which ruled from the 1920s to the 1940s, advocated progress. The Communists under Mao Zedong adopted different models and their ruinous projects caused mass famines. After Mao's death, however, the new regime led by Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) and his successors aggressively promoted modernization of the economy using capitalist models and imported western technology.

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+This was termed the "Opening of China" in the West, and more broadly encompasses the reform and opening up. Among environmentalists, there is a continuum between two opposing poles. The one pole is optimistic, progressive, and business-oriented, and endorses the classic idea of progress. For example, bright green environmentalism endorses the idea that new designs, social innovations and green technologies can solve critical environmental challenges. The other is pessimistic in respect of technological solutions, warning of impending global crisis (through climate change or peak oil, for example) and tends to reject the very idea of modernity and the myth of progress that is so central to modernization thinking. Similarly, Kirkpatrick Sale, wrote about progress as a myth benefiting the few, and a pending environmental doomsday for everyone. An example is the philosophy of Deep Ecology.

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+
+== Philosophy ==
+
+Sociologist Robert Nisbet said that "No single idea has been more important than ... the Idea of Progress in Western civilization for three thousand years", and defines five "crucial premises" of the idea of progress:
+
+value of the past
+nobility of Western civilization
+worth of economic/technological growth
+faith in reason and scientific/scholarly knowledge obtained through reason
+intrinsic importance and worth of life on earth
+Sociologist P. A. Sorokin said, "The ancient Chinese, Babylonian, Hindu, Greek, Roman, and most of the medieval thinkers supporting theories of rhythmical, cyclical or trendless movements of social processes were much nearer to reality than the present proponents of the linear view." Unlike Confucianism and to a certain extent Taoism, that both search for an ideal past, the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition believes in the fulfillment of history, which was translated into the idea of progress in the modern age. Therefore, Chinese proponents of modernization have looked to western models. According to Thompson, the late Qing dynasty reformer, Kang Youwei, believed he had found a model for reform and "modernisation" in the Ancient Chinese Classics.
+Philosopher Karl Popper said that progress was not fully adequate as a scientific explanation of social phenomena. More recently, Kirkpatrick Sale, a self-proclaimed neo-luddite author, wrote exclusively about progress as a myth, in an essay entitled "Five Facets of a Myth".
+Iggers (1965) says that proponents of progress underestimated the extent of man's destructiveness and irrationality, while critics misunderstand the role of rationality and morality in human behavior.
+In 1946, psychoanalyst Charles Baudouin claimed modernity has retained the "corollary" of the progress myth, the idea that the present is superior to the past, while at the same time insisting that it is free of the myth:
+
+The last two centuries were familiar with the myth of progress. Our own century has adopted the myth of modernity. The one myth has replaced the other.
+Men ceased to believe in progress; but only to pin their faith to more tangible realities, whose sole original significance had been that they were the instruments of progress.
+
+This exaltation of the present ... is a corollary of that very faith in progress which people claim to have discarded. The present is superior to the past, by definition, only in a mythology of progress. Thus one retains the corollary while rejecting the principle. There is only one way of retaining a position of whose instability one is conscious. One must simply refrain from thinking.
+A cyclical theory of history was adopted by Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), a German historian who wrote The Decline of the West in 1920. World War I, World War II, and the rise of totalitarianism demonstrated that progress was not automatic and that technological improvement did not necessarily guarantee democracy and moral advancement. British historian Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) felt that Christianity would help modern civilization overcome its challenges.
+
+The Jeffersonians said that history is not exhausted but that man may begin again in a new world. Besides rejecting the lessons of the past, they Americanized the idea of progress by democratizing and vulgarizing it to include the welfare of the common man as a form of republicanism. As Romantics deeply concerned with the past, collecting source materials and founding historical societies, the Founding Fathers were animated by clear principles. They saw man in control of his destiny, saw virtue as a distinguishing characteristic of a republic, and were concerned with happiness, progress, and prosperity. Thomas Paine, combining the spirit of rationalism and romanticism, pictured a time when America's innocence would sound like a romance, and concluded that the fall of America could mark the end of "the noblest work of human wisdom".
+Historian J. B. Bury wrote in 1920:
+
+To the minds of most people the desirable outcome of human development would be a condition of society in which all the inhabitants of the planet would enjoy a perfectly happy existence. ... It cannot be proved that the unknown destination towards which man is advancing is desirable. The movement may be Progress, or it may be in an undesirable direction and therefore not Progress. ... The Progress of humanity belongs to the same order of ideas as Providence or personal immortality. It is true or it is false, and like them it cannot be proved either true or false. Belief in it is an act of faith.
+
+In the postmodernist thought steadily gaining ground from the 1980s, the grandiose claims of the modernizers are steadily eroded, and the very concept of social progress is again questioned and scrutinized. In the new vision, radical modernizers like Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong appear as totalitarian despots, whose vision of social progress is held to be totally deformed. Postmodernists question the validity of 19th-century and 20th-century notions of progress—both on the capitalist and the Marxist side of the spectrum. They argue that both capitalism and Marxism overemphasize technological achievements and material prosperity while ignoring the value of inner happiness and peace of mind. Postmodernism posits that both dystopia and utopia are one and the same, overarching grand narratives with impossible conclusions.
+
+Some 20th-century authors refer to the Myth of Progress to refer to the idea that the human condition will inevitably improve. In 1932, English physician Montague David Eder wrote: "The myth of progress states that civilization has moved, is moving, and will move in a desirable direction. Progress is inevitable... Philosophers, men of science and politicians have accepted the idea of the inevitability of progress." Eder argues that the advancement of civilization is leading to greater unhappiness and loss of control in the environment. The strongest critics of the idea of progress complain that it remains a dominant idea in the 21st century, and shows no sign of diminished influence. As one fierce critic, British historian John Gray (b. 1948), concludes:

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+Faith in the liberating power of knowledge is encrypted into modern life. Drawing on some of Europe's most ancient traditions, and daily reinforced by the quickening advance of science, it cannot be given up by an act of will. The interaction of quickening scientific advance with unchanging human needs is a fate that we may perhaps temper, but cannot overcome... Those who hold to the possibility of progress need not fear. The illusion that through science humans can remake the world is an integral part of the modern condition. Renewing the eschatological hopes of the past, progress is an illusion with a future.
+Recently the idea of progress has been generalized to psychology, being related with the concept of a goal, that is, progress is understood as "what counts as a means of advancing towards the end result of a given defined goal."
+
+=== Antiquity ===
+
+Historian J. B. Bury said that thought in ancient Greece was dominated by the theory of world-cycles or the doctrine of eternal return, and was steeped in a belief parallel to the Judaic "fall of man," but rather from a preceding "Golden Age" of innocence and simplicity. Time was generally regarded as the enemy of humanity which depreciates the value of the world. He credits the Epicureans with having had a potential for leading to the foundation of a theory of progress through their materialistic acceptance of the atomism of Democritus as the explanation for a world without an intervening deity.
+
+For them, the earliest condition of men resembled that of the beasts, and from this primitive and miserable condition they laboriously reached the existing state of civilisation, not by external guidance or as a consequence of some initial design, but simply by the exercise of human intelligence throughout a long period.
+Robert Nisbet and Gertrude Himmelfarb have attributed a notion of progress to other Greeks. Xenophanes said "The gods did not reveal to men all things in the beginning, but men through their own search find in the course of time that which is better."
+
+=== Islamic era ===
+
+With the rise of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates and later Ottoman Empire, progress in the Islamic civilizations was characterized by a system of translating books (particularly Greek philosophy books in the Abbasid era) of various cultures into local languages (often Arabic and Persian), testing and refining their scientific or philosophical theories and claims, and then building upon them with their own Islamic ideas, theologies, ontologies, and scientific experimental results. The Round city of Baghdad was characterized as a model and example of progress for the region, where peoples of every religion and race sent their top students to study at its famous international academy called the House of Wisdom. Islamic Spain was also famed as a center of learning in Europe, where Jews and Christians flocked to Muslim halaqas, eager to bring the latest knowledge back to their countries in Europe, which later sparked the European Renaissance due the Muslim scholars' finesse in adapting classical knowledge (such as Greek philosophy) to Abrahamic contexts. Muslim rulers viewed knowledge, including both scientific and philosophical knowledge, as a key to power, and promoted learning, scientific inquiry, and patronization of scholars.
+
+=== Renaissance ===
+
+During the Medieval period, science was to a large extent based on Scholastic (a method of thinking and learning from the Middle Ages) interpretations of Aristotle's work. The Renaissance changed the mindset in Europe, which induced a revolution in curiosity about nature in general and scientific advance, which opened the gates for technical and economic advance. Furthermore, the individual potential was seen as a never-ending quest for being God-like, paving the way for a view of man based on unlimited perfection and progress.
+
+=== Age of Enlightenment (1650–1800) ===
+
+In the Enlightenment, French historian and philosopher Voltaire (1694–1778) was a major proponent of progress. At first Voltaire's thought was informed by the idea of progress coupled with rationalism. His subsequent notion of the historical idea of progress saw science and reason as the driving forces behind societal advancement.
+Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) argued that progress is neither automatic nor continuous and does not measure knowledge or wealth, but is a painful and largely inadvertent passage from barbarism through civilization toward enlightened culture and the abolition of war. Kant called for education, with the education of humankind seen as a slow process whereby world history propels mankind toward peace through war, international commerce, and enlightened self-interest.
+Scottish theorist Adam Ferguson (1723–1816) defined human progress as the working out of a divine plan, though he rejected predestination. The difficulties and dangers of life provided the necessary stimuli for human development, while the uniquely human ability to evaluate led to ambition and the conscious striving for excellence. But he never adequately analyzed the competitive and aggressive consequences stemming from his emphasis on ambition even though he envisioned man's lot as a perpetual striving with no earthly culmination. Man found his happiness only in effort.
+Some scholars consider the idea of progress that was affirmed with the Enlightenment, as a secularization of ideas from early Christianity, and a reworking of ideas from ancient Greece.

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+
+=== Romanticism and 19th century ===
+In the 19th century, Romantic critics charged that progress did not automatically better the human condition, and in some ways could make it worse. Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) reacted against the concept of progress as set forth by William Godwin and Condorcet because he believed that inequality of conditions is "the best (state) calculated to develop the energies and faculties of man". He said, "Had population and food increased in the same ratio, it is probable that man might never have emerged from the savage state." He argued that man's capacity for improvement has been demonstrated by the growth of his intellect, a form of progress which offsets the distresses engendered by the law of population.
+German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) criticized the idea of progress as the 'weakling's doctrines of optimism,' and advocated undermining concepts such as faith in progress, to allow the strong individual to stand above the plebeian masses. An important part of his thinking consists of the attempt to use the classical model of 'eternal recurrence of the same' to dislodge the idea of progress.
+Iggers (1965) argues there was general agreement in the late 19th century that the steady accumulation of knowledge and the progressive replacement of conjectural, that is, theological or metaphysical, notions by scientific ones was what created progress. Most scholars concluded this growth of scientific knowledge and methods led to the growth of industry and the transformation of warlike societies into industrial and pacific ones. They agreed as well that there had been a systematic decline of coercion in government, and an increasing role of liberty and of rule by consent. There was more emphasis on impersonal social and historical forces; progress was increasingly seen as the result of an inner logic of society.
+
+=== Marxist theory (late 19th century) ===
+Marx developed a theory of historical materialism. He describes the mid-19th-century condition in The Communist Manifesto as follows:
+
+The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty, and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all which is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind.
+Furthermore, Marx described the process of social progress, which in his opinion is based on the interaction between the productive forces and the relations of production:
+
+No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed, and new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society.
+Capitalism is thought by Marx as a process of continual change, in which the growth of markets dissolve all fixities in human life, and Marx argues that capitalism is progressive and non-reactionary. Marxism further states that capitalism, in its quest for higher profits and new markets, will inevitably sow the seeds of its own destruction. Marxists believe that, in the future, capitalism will be replaced by socialism and eventually communism.
+Many advocates of capitalism such as Schumpeter agreed with Marx's analysis of capitalism as a process of continual change through creative destruction, but, unlike Marx, believed and hoped that capitalism could essentially go on forever.
+Thus, by the beginning of the 20th century, two opposing schools of thought—Marxism and liberalism—believed in the possibility and the desirability of continual change and improvement. Marxists strongly opposed capitalism and the liberals strongly supported it, but the one concept they could both agree on was progress, which affirms the power of human beings to make, improve and reshape their society, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation. Modernity denotes cultures that embrace that concept of progress. (This is not the same as modernism, which was the artistic and philosophical response to modernity, some of which embraced technology while rejecting individualism, but more of which rejected modernity entirely.)
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+
+== External links ==
+
+United Nations Economic and Social Development
+Islam, Modernity and the Concept of Progress