Abstract

The idea of progress becomes intelligible only when coupled with the idea of revolution. This last concept, coming from astronomy, entered the social sciences only in the seventeenth century. The concept of revolution differs according to whether we follow it within a Copernican conception or a Ptolemaic conception of progress and historical becoming. So, all the reflection to be made presupposes that the revolution will reach its goal only when the orbit that progress continues to describe is completed. On the way, History and progress have only known revolutions, riots, restorations, counter-revolutions.