The ideology of scientific progress legitimated class hierarchy rather than lifting the poor

Evidence

The concept of scientific progress that Bacon developed as a program sanctioned the gap between journeyman and mastercraftsman. Much has been made of the concept of progress in Western society, through which standards of living for “all mankind” are presumably improved. But did the “public good” really include the cottager, journeyperson, and peasant, or did it function so as to benefit the master craftsman, clothier, and merchant? — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 712

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Darwinism fused inherited hierarchy with a doctrine of progress — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 472; Natural theology legitimated visible class hierarchy as part of God’s design — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 924; Evolutionist doctrines translated middle-class ambition into biological race hierarchy (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Darwinism fused inherited hierarchy with a doctrine of progress #corroborates (0.92) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 472
• Scientific rationalism becomes an instrument of social domination #corroborates (0.88) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 141
• Evolutionist doctrines translated middle-class ambition into biological race hierarchy #corroborates (0.85)
• Belief in zero-sum competition is an ideology that maintains hierarchy for dominant groups #expands (0.80) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1486
• Natural theology legitimated visible class hierarchy as part of God’s design #corroborates (0.78) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 924
• Progress as ideology differs fundamentally from becoming as philosophy #expands (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1275
• Positivists mistook technology’s social regression for scientific progress #corroborates (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 827
• Exact sciences held near-fetishistic authority within Marxist thought #qualifies (0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1571
• Logical categories mirror social hierarchy and division of labor, not solidarity #corroborates (0.70) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 43