Exploring the Genesis of Economic Innovations: The Religious Gestalt-Switch and the Duty to Invent as Preconditions for Economic Growth

Abstract

This paper discusses changes in the level of knowledge, i.e. learning, as a key source of economic growth, and argues that historically a radical change in attitude towards new knowledge has been a necessary precondition for economic growth. The Renaissance created this radically new attitude in Europe, and this paper discusses contributions to economic theory and economic policy of some of the most influential scientists involved in this process: Francis Bacon (1561-1626) in England, and Leibniz (1646-1716) and Christian Wolff (1679-1754) in Germany. It is argued that these polyhistors viewed economic change as a dynamic knowledge-based process–a view that has important similarities with modern evolutionary or Schumpeterian economics. These similarities have so far not been recognized, and the paper suggests that modern economic theory would benefit from studying the theoretical and practical economics of these philosophers who laid the foundations for the industrial revolution.