In January 2026, Matthew Sweet, on BBC Radio 4, presented a series entitled What happened to Progress?. They were very interesting and thought-provoking, because progress has been presupposed for some centuries, both as an inescapable fact and also as a norm, as something we ought to seek, aim for and protect at all costs.
The pressure gradually built up, until the balloon burst. Despot Trump managed to gain leadership and reigned like a Roman Caesar. Most of those types of progress were suddenly seen as the Enemy (especially those of tolerance and democracy).
How and why did this happen? That is what this series seeks to discuss. It brings up a lot of useful ideas - but I kept getting the feeling that something important is missing. When I listened to the episode called Payback, on Sunday 11th January 2026, which speaks about environmental concern including about climate change, it became clearer what was included and what was missing. So I wrote to Matthew Sweet at the BBC (via Free Thinking), the following (bold-emphasis added on this web page to assist readers find key points).
Thank you for these programmes. And especially thank you for discussing climate change etc. - seemingly a forgotten topic these days!
However, it seems to me that you missed something important - in fact, three important things: responsibility, attitude and mindset.
There was very little about being responsible for the direction in which progress goes. There was very little about attitude of either selfishness or self-giving love among those who contribute to progress and those who suffer from it. There was very little about mindset: beliefs, expectations, presuppositions, commitments, aspirations, and especially reference to a higher Divine for how we progress.
These are not just the three structure-agency relationships of Giddens, but the three terminal aspects of Dooyeweerd's aspects of reality. Dooyeweerd, a Dutch thinker of the mid 20th century, identified 15 aspects, which are modalities of meaning, modes of being and modes of functioning. Each aspect has laws that enable functioning and repercussions that are meaningful in that aspect. E.g. physical aspect: energy, causality, etc., e.g. economic aspect: waste leading to poverty. Your programme mentioned most aspects except the final three, as follows.
These are all topics mentioned in the programme, and as you can see each is meaningful primarily on one of those aspects. But very little in the three final aspects:
All human functioning involves every aspect - including the phenomenon of progress. To Dooyeweerd, later aspects impact and influence our behaviour in earlier aspects. So the final three are the most important, because they influence everything. The final do so usually unseen; they are what might be called "culture" (as in "toxic culture in this firm" or "a culture of openness and generosity").
Whereas you discussed or at least mentioned most aspects in your programme, this retrocipatory impact (as Dooyeweerd called it) was not discussed. But, for example, progress could be benign or malign, depending on our functioning in these three aspects:
If we function well in each of these aspects, they have positive impact, and progress can be beneficial, but if we function badly in (against the laws of) these aspects, then progress becomes dangerous and destructive. Because there are multiple aspects, we get what you call a polycrisis.
What this gives us is an understanding of why and how and whether and in which situations progress can be beneficial or destructive. (And it might even be beneficial in one area, such as hygiene and health, but destructive in another, such as climate change.
Would you like to explore this further? Re. Dooyeweerd's aspects, see "http://dooy.info/aspects.html".
Andrew Basden
11 January 2026
Andrew Basden
Professor Emeritus: Human Factors, Philosophy, Information Systems
University of Salford, M5 4WT, U.K.
This page, "http://dooy.info/using/wht.progress.html", is part of a collection that discusses application of Herman Dooyeweerd's ideas, within The Dooyeweerd Pages, which explain, explore and discuss Dooyeweerd's interesting philosophy. Email questions or comments are welcome.
Written on the Amiga and Protext in the style of classic HTML.
You may use this material subject to conditions. Compiled by Andrew Basden.
Created: 13 January 2026 Last updated: