Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail

by Ray Dalio

The Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions (1600s–1700s) Also known as the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment was essentially the scientific method applied to how humans should behave. This way of thinking became widespread in Europe in the 1700s and 1800s and was an extension of the diminishing of the rights of the monarchy and the church and the increasing of the rights of the individual that characterized earlier intellectual movements. New fields like economics expanded thanks to thinkers like Adam Smith, while figures like John Locke and Montesquieu pushed political philosophy in new directions. In particular, the Enlightenment ideas of these and other figures promoted rationality and individual liberties and undermined monarchic and religious powers, creating a movement toward overthrowing monarchies known as the Age of Revolutions. This wave of revolutions included the American, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Italian.