The myth of progress

Abstract

This manuscript stages the West and China as civilizations rooted in contrasting myths. The Western leading paradigm is the Faustian Man whose ambition created modernity and the tragedy of progress. It is a tragedy already condemned by history but, being Faust’s construction site unfinished, it is a tragedy that everyone seems keen to re-enact. On the other hand, China conceived the concept of stability, rather than competition, the key for a durable success. Behind Zheng He’s voyages and the Ming Dynasty’s choice to go westbound, rather than eastbound, lies an anti-Faustian attitude, the essence of Chinese philosophy, to be read not as anti-modernity but the attempt to shape an alternative modernity.