In society’s evolution, ideas are the essential ferments of any change. There are no implacable laws of history and the future is not written in the stars or, to the “delight” of (macro) contemporary supporters of quantitative approaches, in the cyber-economic models that became the sterile fashion of economics journals – where exactly ‘economics’ is the endangered scientific species. History, as well as the future course of events, has been and will be determined by ideas, be they right or wrong. Trade and the division of labour, prosperity and social cooperation, poverty and political exploitation, the emergence of the state, the transition from monarchy to democracy, socialism and the anti-state resistance, the peaceful or violent overthrow of governments, all were and are the results of ideas that can be found in constant evolution and competition, depending on their popularity and on how long they remain in people’s minds.