Can I read Chance and Necessity : an Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology on EtoBox?

Chance and Necessity : an Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology by Jacques Monod is a philosophy book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Chance and Necessity : an Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology about?

This radical book by Nobel laureate Monod is an important intellectual event. Chance and Necessity is a philosophical statement whose intention is to sweep away as both false and dangerous the animist conception of man that has dominated virtually all Western worldviews from primitive cultures to those of dialectical materialists. He bases his argument on the evidence of modern biology, which indisputably shows, that man is the product of chance genetic mutation. With the unrelenting logic of the scientist, he draws upon what we now know (and can theorize) of genetic structure to suggest an new way of looking at ourselves. He argues that objective scientific knowledge, the only reliable knowledge, denies the concepts of destiny or evolutionary purpose that underlie traditional philosophies. He contends that the persistence of those concepts is responsible for the intensifying schizophrenia of a world that accepts, and lives by, the fruits of science while refusing to face its moral implications. Dismissing as "animist" not only Plato, Hegel, Bergson and Teilhard de Chardin but Spencer and Marx as well, he calls for a new ethic that will recognize the distinction between objective k

Who reads Chance and Necessity : an Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology?

Author

Jacques Monod

Publisher

Random House USA Inc; Vintage Books

Published

1972

Language

EN

ISBN

9780394718255

Category

philosophy

Subjects

Fiction, Biology, Religion

Rating

4.13 / 5 (257 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-13