SUMMARY

Chapter 7: Plan and Chance (1000 Years, ca. 750–1750: Full Phase) returns to the subject of history through historiography, with a central message about the path of science having involved, besides players highlighted in earlier chapters, the ‘loops’ of communication as a critical component relevant to all others. Highlighting ‘outlooks’ as another key component for understanding the past, representing the present, and projecting the future, the chapter turns full circle to the book’s own transmission of knowledge about transmission of knowledge, closing with a treatment of elements of chance as relevant players in the mix during a period extended to a thousand years, here termed a ‘Full Phase.’