Chance and Necessity

Chance and Necessity is a 1970 book by Jacques Monod, interpreting the processes of evolution to show that life is only the result of natural processes by "pure chance". It has been described as a "manifesto of materialist biology in the most reductivist sense".^[1] The basic tenet of this book by Nobel Prize winner Jaques Monod is that systems in nature with molecular biology, such as enzymatic biofeedback loops can be explained without having to invoke final causality.

In this book, Monod adopted the term teleonomic to permit recognition of purpose in biology without appealing to a final cause.

According to the introduction the book's title was inspired by a line attributed to Democritus, "Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity."

Summary

Preface

• 1. Of strange objects
• 2. Vitalisms and animisms

The scientific condemnation of the predeterminism

• 1. The demon of Maxwell
• 2. Microscopic cybernetics
• 3. Molecular ontogeny
• 4. Invariance and pertubation
• 5. Evolution
• 6. The boundary
• 7. The Kingdom and darkness

Appendix

Biography

1. ^ Jeffery S. Wicken. "The Cosmic Breath: Reflections on The Thermodynamics of Creation". Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science, 1984.

• Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology by Jacques Monod, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1971, ISBN 0-394-46615-2