> (as an inevitable succession of triumphs on the way to a single objective truth, each building on the last)

See also James Burke's "Connection" series, as well as his (amusingly named) "The Day the Universe Changed":

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burke_(science_historian... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(TV_series) * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Universe_Changed