You will get a lot of hate for this but I must admit:
What made Western Europe diverge from places like Russia or Saudi Arabia?
Individuality seems to have been invented and embraced by European and American intelligentsia.
What made Western Europe diverge from places like Russia or Saudi Arabia?
Individuality seems to have been invented and embraced by European and American intelligentsia.
But we also can’t underestimate the impact of: 1) abundant energy sources—initially wood and then coal that could power machinery. 2) a scientific tradition with engineering applications in mind. 3) the Black Plague that let people just drop their scythes and move to the city to become tradesmen and earn a better living. 4) the Common Law tradition placing property rights and the right to contract on near-sacred grounds. 5) Access to abundant fishing off the coast of what became North America.
I don't think there's any one thing we can point to explain the rise of West, it's a confluence of factors that I'm very grateful happened before I was born
This created an intense competition where the best ideas would survive.
As trade grew so did the exchange of ideas in Europe. Different regimes had different views on intellectuals. Famously, Da Vinci and Voltaire had multiple patrons through their lives.
Claiming they are best because they survive is survivorship bias.
No, it’s not. Only measuring survivors is survivorship bias.
Not really. It’s saying increases competitive pressure results in a more-competitive output. That’s almost by definition true. Products of competition tend to be fitter than not. If ten fish of a rainbow of colors are introduced to an environment and only the red ones survive, they are fitter. If one looks at the surviving fish and concludes only red fish were introduced to the environment, that is survivorship bias.
Joseph Henrich says it’s the medieval church’s prohibition on cousin marriage, which dissolved the strong kinship bonds that dominate the rest of the world. He has a book on the subject called The WEIRDest People In The World which is good.
University level international relations courses generally start on the 30years war, I feel it is appropriate for that to be considered "the rough start" of "honest to god modernity" yeah
The Black Death increased labour’s bargaining power right before the Industrial Revolution. It’s a lucky set of quirks that gave Enlightenment-era ideas fertile soil to land on.
“Right before” was hyperbole. The population, and in particular, labor effects, were nevertheless persistent. Western labor was anomalously expensive.
Just admit you were completely wrong and move on. It's fine, I'm wrong a lot too.
Because the thesis holds [1][2]. It’s far from a controversial theory in medieval and developmental economics.
[1] https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EUoCBAAAQBAJ&oi=...
[2] https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C51&q=Bla...
Come on, that's hilariously wrong, and no attempt to walk it back makes it less funny.
Of course, I'm just a bit on edge because I'm writing this post right after the 30 years war has started.