How to summarize a saga that has not been finalized yet? Let´s reflect a bit on this question. We have been exceedingly busy, reading, researching, deducing, and filtering truth from fake material that has been rolled out from the 18th century to our days, cross-checking the same information on and on and on, until we were completely sure that our inferences had certain or at least more than 50% of the truth. Dear adorable readers, this saga has been a beautiful lecture of production for you. Beyond the grinding of making sure that you had the best available public evidence of what truly happened between 1600 to 1800 (we have stopped with the French Revolution), I can´t close season II, without making the following statement: I wish I could travel to all the manuscript vaults available on earth just to be sure that what I wrote in season II is the truth that I have been looking for. As a corporate strategy state-of-the-art researcher, I was compelled to believe in the authors of our Bibliography. To trust them, was beyond taking the risk of falling pleasantly with the reality of those years or falling unpleasantly in the midst of new ignorance.

I took the risk of believing in those lovely books that have accompanied us this year. Without Doctor Jonathan Israel from Oxford, I wouldn´t have confirmed all that I thought about Kant, Diderot, Voltaire, Smith, Rousseau, and Spinoza. Reading Doctor Israel’s 4 books has been so revealing. I truly invite you to read them. And still, we will continue reading his material for the next season III. Beyond Oxford Israel’s core bibliography, building our own understanding from the base of magnificent historians, historiographers, history authors of amazing books, and faculty professors dedicated to the Enlightenment, I simply can´t pass the page of this season without reflecting on my admiration for their work. Many of these authors have dedicated their whole life to such marvelous texts, academic papers, reviews, and courses…  And they have navigated hopelessly in the middle of academic despair because history, usually, has been ignored or dismissed in corporate strategic decision-making during the last half of the century. Most top consulting houses do not even remember that history exists, and I write this phrase as a former consultant that worked for an uppermost one. How to sail in this life without history?

Let me close this opening of our last episode, by expressing that in everything I write, I just to try to make the best pursuit of inferring for you. I always try to be humble enough to open my mind to and for each episode, as if I am an explorer. Otherwise, I could enter the production of each publication, with a partial or influenced independent approach. I have learned since the year 2016, to avoid the pitfall of groupthink, or to evade the external burden for showing off what I don´t know. I do hope our style has been conveyed to you appropriately during Season II.    

Our purpose is to help you to think, to go beyond the boundaries of our publications. We can only accomplish our mission if our adorable readers are persuaded to read beyond Eleonora Escalante Strategy. We truly wish you can open your eyes to take the time to recapture the beauty of our past (when we were readers of real pages and not audience spectators of the virtual internet). We truly wish you to keep your brains “on point”.   To help you to build a mind of abstraction in your reasoning and to start to connect history with your present for making judicious decisions in the future. Particularly, our knowledge production for Season II of “From the Enlightenment to Business Models” exhibited that designed specific roadmap. As a Christocentric person, this saga has no interest in shaking the molds of the history of religion, but to show you where are we coming from.

This saga endured from April 23^rd to this day. We thought to publish twice a week in the beginning, but it was impossible to do it because of several endogenous and external issues, all beyond our control. We had a huge loss in our trajectory: our boat of inspiration was dismasted. Literally. We were forced to retire from Leg 4 (from Itajai to Newport), and that chaos obliged us to readjust our original outline many times. In uncertainty, we must modify, adapt, and change as many times. That is reality. That is to write a LIVE academic saga.

Despite all the issues that we have encountered, we readjusted the schedule and we have finalized it according to a new outline that was shared on May 20^th. We truly tried to stick with the Ocean Race as much as we could.

Summary.
First, we kicked off with Spinoza (1632-1677). In this chapter, we described the main elements of his two main oeuvres: The Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (TTP) and the Tractatus Politicus (TP). We also realized that Spinoza after his death, was used and manipulated by each and all the rest of the radical philosophes, a kind of a scapegoat, someone to blame as an atheist and beyond. Spinoza (1632-1677) died young in The Hague (The Netherlands), so we couldn´t see his work evolve into maturity. He wasn´t able to change what he wrote, and his philosophy, as far as we could have concluded, was not only manipulated by his Spinozist followers but used as an emblematic flag for other purposes. Of course, Spinoza´s radical thoughts were also developed in the context of Frederik Hendrik, William II, and William III, the Stadtholders of the Dutch Republic. Spinoza saw the creation of the Dutch West and East India Company and the end of the Eighty Years War, which allowed the recognition of the Dutch Republic.

The life of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) obliged us to write two episodes. The first one is about the history of Prussia since its origins as a Teutonic Knights´ Territory. And this episode was worthy of going back in time before the Crusades. We explored in 30 slides the evolution of the Teutonic Knights’ order to the Nation of Prussia, and we also discovered the relation between Kant and the Teutonic Order. The century of Immanuel Kant took us to the land of 4 kings Fredericks: Frederick I, Frederick William I, Frederick II, and Frederick Wilhelm II; and we uncovered the foundations of the Prussian aspirations in Europe. We explored the 9 main characteristics of royal absolutism, and Hohenzollern´s economic interests to expand through war, as a continuum that arrived at Hitler´s Second World War. With Kant, we had the time to explore the 12 different segments of his philosophical theory, he also tried to solve a puzzle of questions that helped to build the moderate enlightenment value proposition that restrained the beliefs of the German nobles who were influenced by the radicals.

The Scottish Adam Smith ((1723-1790) essence was also unearthed, not just through the concise analysis of the main elements of his books, but also because Smith (and Hume) have been considered the founding fathers of Capitalism and its further mistakes, that need to be solved in this century. The free markets of Smith´s age are completely different from what we already have in place, and the premises of Smith were functioning to dismast an imperial aristocratic ruling class that restricted the economies and societies. When the commercial society was promoted in the “Wealth of Nations”, the land and its sources of production were pivotal for the economies. Smith never saw the effects of his theories in the first industrial revolution, but many of his observations have remained intact to this day, in every single theory of economics that subsequent economists have created.  The current digital virtual premises of commerce affect transparent competition because each of our specialized jobs is converted into a commodity in a shared interconnected world. Moreover, with robotics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet; many of our brainiac jobs are at risk to disappear forever. The specialization of Smith is demolished in the digital-virtual era, and that is slaying the fundamentals of all our political-economic systems, particularly those who have given up producing their own and are importing everything from the cheapest places. 

With Rousseau (1712-1778), our composer musician of the Enlightenment, we discovered the land of his domains, the House of Savoy territories, and his pertinent contribution as “the citizen of Geneva”. The elements of his philosophical impact landed in showing us the consequences of disconnecting economic progress from ethical values. He reaffirmed that “modern progress has corrupted people instead of improved them” and he also was a pioneer of evolution thought in his own terms, all together with Diderot and Voltaire.

Our chameleonic Voltaire (1694-1778), the champion of the Moderate Enlightenment, a pro-royalist, and a dedicated author with innumerable facades, not only taught us how to surf the different stages of the Enlightenment in Continental Europe, but he was a master of royal associations: From the Bourbons in France to the Hanover of Britain, the Habsburg of Austria-Netherlands, the Orange Nassau Stadtholders, the Hohenzollern of Prussia, the Savoys´ of Geneva, and many more members of the nobility class. Voltaire impressed me as much as Denis Diderot (1713-1784). Diderot ability to network from Paris, the center of the Enlightenment, not only amazes anyone in this century, but also affirms us that despite many difficulties, human beings are able to accomplish greater things with ardent passion, immense diligence, hard work, cautious mindset, and influential connections.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we do not want to conclude what we have not completed yet.  We still have a lot of work to do as of July 21^st. “From the Enlightenment to Business Models, Season III”, will last 20 weeks and its respective 20 episodes. We have decided to publish only on Fridays as of this saga and for the rest of 2023 and the future.

To this day, I have provided certain hints, and specific insinuations about how the Enlightenment of the 18th century and its main representatives have shaped the business modeling of today, as it is being taught by business schools. But I have not linked our historical discoveries from Season I and Season II with business modeling yet.  I will dedicate the rest of the year to tying all the knots. That is my art. I am not a historian, please remember that, but I had to give you the basics of Enlightenment history, and I beg your pardon if a mishap or error may have ensued. From now on, we will be moving into my own domain. The best of this academic saga is yet to come.

Announcement.

Expect us to return on July 21^st with the third season of “From the Enlightenment to Business Models”. The Ocean Race will not accompany us then, but their hearts, their presence, and their reading efforts are always with us. See you in three weeks from now. Blessings and thank you for reading our episodes. Muchísimas gracias por todo.  

Ocean Musical Section

The Ocean Race finished today in the Grande Finale at Genova.  We are in Genova, Italy.

Congratulations to all for winning the 14th edition of the Ocean Race. Enjoy the piece of music selected for closing Season II of “From the Enlightenment to Business Models”. Cheers!

^{Leg 7 is over. Photo Source: https://gfycat.com/gifs/search/volvo+ocean+race+extreme}

Sources of reference are utilized today. All are listed on the slides.

Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY.  All are used as Illustrative and non-commercial images. Utilized only informatively for the public good. Nevertheless, most of this blog’s pictures, images, or videos are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.