The Industrial & Scientific Revolution
Why did the scientific revolution take place when it did and where it did
around 1500 - 1800 in parts of Western Europe
?
Let's start with economic growth as an evolutionary wealth creating process which discovers and accumulates more survival value for the costs incurred than competing alternatives. Thus adaptive efficiency defines economic efficiency, so let evolution rip!
The evidence suggests that the industrial and scientific take off followed the removal of constraints and the speeding up of evolution.
The necessary but not sufficient 'causes' include -
breaking the grip of established authority
opening up diversity and choice
encouraging cooperative institutions
establishing scientific method
rewarding successful innovation directly
protecting tort law, free trade and innovative technology
defending wealth stocks from predators, parasites and diminishing returns
This is one possible scenario, but 'causes' can't explain
complexity meaningfully ... however evolution does ... completely ... some
economies evolved an institutional environment (generally accepted rules of
behaviour) which encouraged a process of competitive technological and
organisational innovation creating survival value, or 'know how', more
efficiently than alternatives.
The
same process which built Darwin's 'entangled bank' started
building industrial towns in England around 1700. Take a deep breath and
think about this very basic physical process - open dissipative systems of
complex human interactions in cities, intensified by a stream of coal
energy, generated auto catalytic loops of synergies, which increased useful
survival surpluses which were complex enough to avoid diminishing returns
and became self sustaining ... think better survival value per unit of
energy cost ... think adaptive efficiency.
(I don't suppose anyone can understand that last paragraph unless they have read all the references on this website)
Read my essay notes here
Don't forget to send me your comments, corrections and critique ... here