Social development and problems of modern society

The article deals with the issue on community (social) development. There are two groups of society development theories: spiritual and materialistic ones. The author identifies the problem of the humankind progress, shares his view concerning its sense and lists the progress criteria. The main criterion is the universal availability of knowledge how people can improve themselves and transform the world. Noting the existence of the global problems caused by scientific and technological progress (environmental, safety problems, etc.), the author wonders about the advisability of all achievements and concludes that overcoming the existing problems contributes to further progress.