THE human journey through millennia has essentially been a battle of ideas. Wars and peace, conquests and defeats, empires rising to glory or falling to the depths of infamy, and evolution in governance and economic systems are all outcomes of that battle. The stronger ideas win, particularly when they have broad ownership in society.
Some 2,000 years ago, three Greek philosophers — Plato, his teacher Socrates and student Aristotle — discussed the organising principles of political governance, favouring rule by intellectual aristocracy. In the Middle Ages, European philosophers challenged the prevailing thought on how society was to be governed. John Locke, the 17th-century English philosopher, was one of the earliest voices of liberalism in Europe, while France’s Voltaire believed in the power of reason and religious tolerance. The cumulative effects of these ideas saw Europe embrace democracy, constitutionalism, and liberalism.