The Industrial Enlightenment

The Industrial Enlightenment is Joel Mokyr's signature concept for the cultural and institutional transformation that preceded and enabled the Industrial Revolution. Before this transformation, natural philosophy and practical craft occupied separate social worlds — the gentleman studying optics and the lens grinder polishing glass inhabited different institutions, spoke different languages, moved in different circles. Knowledge existed in abundance on both sides; the bridge between them was narrow, unreliable, and often impassable. The Industrial Enlightenment widened that bridge through a cascade of institutional innovations — scientific societies, patent law, the Encyclopédie, technical education, the Republic of Letters — each reducing the cost of converting understanding into technique and expanding the population of people who could participate in applying knowledge to practical problems.