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!

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