Space Age without Enlightenment?

The question of whether or not humans could reach space without various resources has been exhaustively researched on this site, but one question has not been touched- what about the social and political aspects?

The Enlightenment caused a massive shift throughout the world touched by Europe (which was most of the world at that point). Philosophies of human rights would promote all sorts of revolutions, from the Haitian, to the American, to the French. New economic theories from Adam Smith's capitalism to Karl Marx's communism would rock the economic world, replacing mercantilism. But... what if there was no Marx? No Smith? No Locke, or Rousseau, or Voltaire, even Montesquieu? There would be no capitalism or communism, so no cold war, so no space race. Just more mercantilism and imperialism.

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Space Age without Enlightenment?

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