Historical change arrives as a qualitative leap, not gradual growth

Evidence

A question remains, provided we genuinely shed the doctrine of progress: How could humanity throughout at least six thousand years of recorded history undergo change, as it did, without having to experience the dimension of change as exists in modernity? — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 409 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: History changes only through historical means, not eternal truths — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 261; Qualitative change would catastrophically transform prevailing technical rationality — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 802; Historical change alters how invariant productive elements combine, not the elements themselves. (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Transformative change is gradual within continuities, not clean breaks #contradicts (0.95)
• Historical change alters how invariant productive elements combine, not the elements themselves. #expands (0.80)
• Pre-modern societies underwent change without experiencing it as accelerated rupture #qualifies (0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 409
• Ideology changes by reweighting old elements, not by imposition #expands (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 629
• Economic base determines superstructure and historical epochs change through structural contradiction #expands (0.72)
• The myth of inevitable change masks the class-serving reality of historical rupture #contradicts (0.72)