In his 1993 book Uncommon Sense: The Heretical Nature of Science, Alan Cromer of Northeastern University suggests that we never would’ve invented science if not for what Carl Sagan refers to as “an unlikely concatenation of historical events.”

Cromer writes, “This hostility to science, in the face of its obvious triumphs and benefits, is… evidence that it is something outside the mainstream of human development, perhaps a fluke.”

I’ve never thought of science as a fluke, but so many human-related ventures are flukes, so why should it surprise me as a possibility? Of course, it’s no surprise that Cromer credits some pretty unique combination of factors for the Ancient Greeks to essentially lay the foundation of the scientific method, “the development of objective thinking” as Cromer calls it – at least seven factors in fact. I’m actually going to list them here because it may bear worth repeating, quoting directly from Cromer here.

1. The Greek assemblies, “where men first learned to persuade one another by means of rational debate”
2. “A maritime economy that prevented isolation and parochialism.”
3. “The existence of a widespread Greek-speaking world around which travelers and scholars could wander.”
4. “The existence of an independent merchant class that could hire its own teachers.”
5. “The Iliad and the Odyssey, literary masterpieces that are themselves the epitome of liberal rational thinking.” (A claim I wish to further explore in depth)
6. “A literary religion not dominated by priests.”
7. “The persistence of these factors for 1,000 years.”

Yeah, no way all that happens twice. Although, I wonder if such a civilization could ever exist again.