進步的理念可說是「近代西方思想上最具特色與最普遍的主題」。進步的理念具有雙重性質：歷史的事實與道德的理想。進步的理念是「一種歷史的解釋」，也是塑造歷史的「一種動力」。這種理念所展現的思想體系，顯示了人類最深刻的一種欲望。此理念具有巨大無情的「力量」，它宛如歷史巨流，吞噬了人心，牢籠了對過去的認知、規範了現在的髼為，以及指導了對未來的追來。然而，事實上，從人類長遠的歷史之流來看，此種主導歷史的理念，也是歷史的產物。它的興起與衰退，皆導源於特定的時代的知識與文化基礎。一旦時代的知識與文化發生變遷，主導歷史的理念也就隨之改變，宛如潮汐的潮來潮往般更迭不已。進步的理念大約成於十七世紀，直到十九世紀末達到最高峰。速入二十世紀後，此理念的流行開始走下坡，幾乎被視為是「已破滅的迷思」。本文在對進步理念的研究上，不僅是將其視為是一種過去的歷史現象，也將其視為是研究此種現象的史學，並且偏重它作為歷史的事實與道德的理想間的互動與差距，來綜括此理念的發展過程與意義。本文討論因二十世紀歷史、知識與文化的變遷，進步的理念所面臨的挑戰、進步理念的失據，進步迷思的破壞、以及隨之而生的歷史新視野。

　　　　　In modern world, the most influential result of continuing efforts to fashion a historical understanding is the idea of progress. It is perhaps the most characteristic and pervasive theme in modern Western thought. The idea of progress could be revealed both as a historical fact and as a moral ideal. From the aspect of progress as a historical fact, the idea of progress is "an interpretation of history." But from the aspect of progress as a moral ideals, it becomes "a dynamic power." The doctrines of vast ideal forces devoured people by confining their knowledge of the past, by coding their present behavior, and by directing their chase to the future. Accordingly, one the deepest human desires is to find an unitary pattern in which the whole of experience, past, present and future, actual possible and unfulfilled, is symmetrically ordered. However, the idea of progress is itself a product of history. The rise and fall of an idea is caused by the intellectual and cultural transformation in history. The idea of progress has inspirited most of the great political and intellectual movements for two hundred years. But it declines and even becomes an exploded myth in the last century. The idea of progress has inspirited most of the great political and intellectual movements for two hundred years. But it declines and even becomes an exploded myth in the last century. The idea of progress is not only a kind of idea to be study as a historical phenomenon, but also as a category of historiography. The essay discusses both history and historiography, especially emphasizes the tension between the moral ideal and the historical fact in its history. The essay reveals the historical, intellectual and cultural transformations in the twentieth century, the destructive challenge faced by the idea of progress, the disillusion of the progressive myth, and the new perspective of world history.