What were the three major historical ideas about social change?

In the context of sociology, three fundamental historical ideas have shaped the understanding of social change:1

• The idea of decline or degeneration: This perspective views social change as a falling away from an original, superior state of grace or perfection.1
• The idea of cyclic change: This model suggests that societies follow recurring patterns or phases of growth and decline, rather than moving in a single, permanent direction.1
• The idea of continuous progress: This concept posits that society moves forward through a process of improvement. It became particularly influential following the Enlightenment and served as the core for 19th-century theories of social evolution, which often assumed that development was predetermined, inevitable, and cumulative.1

While these three ideas have characterized Western social thought since Greek and Roman antiquity, the concept of progress has been the most dominant in modern sociological discourse, despite being subject to significant criticism regarding its determinism and Western-centric focus.1