 The problem of progress can be approached from many directions.  Three questions will provide the starting points for this particular analysis.  These are: (1) Does the theory under consideration rigorously define a conception of human well-being and, if so, what is it?  (2) What causes of long-term improvement and, especially, what laws of historical development does the theorist propose? (3) What evidence or reasons does the theorist provide for the aforementioned causal account? Note that the first question is normative, the second belongs to social science, and the third is methodological and epistemological. 