Starting with the 18th century Enlightenment and into the early 20th century, many people believed that science and new knowledge would make the world better. When scientists or philosophers discovered something new, it would always make society a little bit better. They thought that social progress could not be stopped. Modernism especially believed this. But postmodernism says that there is no real social progress. It says that while some things about the world change, people only want to believe that the world is better than it was. It changes but does not get better, because there is no 'better.'