Chance and Necessity

Chance and Necessity PDF Author: Jacques Monod
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780140256468
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Change and necessity is a statement of Darwinian natural selection as a process driven by chance necessity, devoid of purpose or intent.

Chance and Necessity

Chance and Necessity PDF Author: Jacques Monod
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780140256468
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Change and necessity is a statement of Darwinian natural selection as a process driven by chance necessity, devoid of purpose or intent.

Chance and Necessity

Chance and Necessity PDF Author: Jacques Monod
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description


God, Chance and Necessity

God, Chance and Necessity PDF Author: Keith Ward
Publisher: ONEWorld Publications
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
The "new materialism" argues that science and religious belief arencompatible. This book considers such arguments from cosmology, biology, andociobiology view points, and shows that modern scientific knowledge does notndermine belief in God, but points to the existence of God.

Brave Genius

Brave Genius PDF Author: Sean B. Carroll
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307952347
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
The never-before-told account of the intersection of some of the most insightful minds of the 20th century, and a fascinating look at how war, resistance, and friendship can catalyze genius. In the spring of 1940, the aspiring but unknown writer Albert Camus and budding scientist Jacques Monod were quietly pursuing ordinary, separate lives in Paris. After the German invasion and occupation of France, each joined the Resistance to help liberate the country from the Nazis and ascended to prominent, dangerous roles. After the war and through twists of circumstance, they became friends, and through their passionate determination and rare talent they emerged as leading voices of modern literature and biology, each receiving the Nobel Prize in their respective fields. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unpublished and unknown material gathered over several years of research, Brave Genius tells the story of how each man endured the most terrible episode of the twentieth century and then blossomed into extraordinarily creative and engaged individuals. It is a story of the transformation of ordinary lives into exceptional lives by extraordinary events--of courage in the face of overwhelming adversity, the flowering of creative genius, deep friendship, and of profound concern for and insight into the human condition.

Studies in the Philosophy of Biology

Studies in the Philosophy of Biology PDF Author: Francisco José Ayala
Publisher: MacMillan
ISBN: 9780333148600
Category : Biologie - Philosophie - Congrès
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Proceedings of the conference on Problems of reduction in biology held at the Study and Conference Center of the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy, from 9 to 16 September 1972.

Chance and Necessity

Chance and Necessity PDF Author: Jacques Monod
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description


Purpose and Necessity in Social Theory

Purpose and Necessity in Social Theory PDF Author: Maurice Mandelbaum
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421431920
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Originally published in 1987. Philosopher Maurice Mandelbaum offers a broad-ranging essay on the roles of chance, choice, purpose, and necessity in human events. He traces the many changes these concepts have undergone, from the analyses of Hobbes and Spinoza, through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Mandelbaum examines two contrary tendencies in the history of social theories. Some thinkers, he shows, have explained the character of institutions in terms of their individual purposes, whereas others have stressed relationships of necessity among society's institutions. Mandelbaum discusses chance, choice, and necessity at length and reaches some provocative conclusions about the ways in which they are interwoven in human affairs.

Improbable Destinies

Improbable Destinies PDF Author: Jonathan B. Losos
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399184937
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
A major new book overturning our assumptions about how evolution works Earth’s natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change—a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze—caused evolution to take a completely different course. What role does each force really play in the constantly changing natural world? Are the plants and animals that exist today, and we humans ourselves, inevitabilities or evolutionary flukes? And what does that say about life on other planets? Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. He takes us around the globe to meet the researchers who are solving the deepest mysteries of life on Earth through their work in experimental evolutionary science. Losos himself is one of the leaders in this exciting new field, and he illustrates how experiments with guppies, fruit flies, bacteria, foxes, and field mice, along with his own work with anole lizards on Caribbean islands, are rewinding the tape of life to reveal just how rapid and predictable evolution can be. Improbable Destinies will change the way we think and talk about evolution. Losos's insights into natural selection and evolutionary change have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria. This compelling narrative offers a new understanding of ourselves and our role in the natural world and the cosmos.

The Design Inference

The Design Inference PDF Author: William A. Dembski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139936298
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
The design inference uncovers intelligent causes by isolating their key trademark: specified events of small probability. Just about anything that happens is highly improbable, but when a highly improbable event is also specified (i.e. conforms to an independently given pattern) undirected natural causes lose their explanatory power. Design inferences can be found in a range of scientific pursuits from forensic science to research into the origins of life to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This challenging and provocative 1998 book shows how incomplete undirected causes are for science and breathes new life into classical design arguments. It will be read with particular interest by philosophers of science and religion, other philosophers concerned with epistemology and logic, probability and complexity theorists, and statisticians.

Aristotle's Concept of Chance

Aristotle's Concept of Chance PDF Author: John Dudley
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438432283
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
This landmark book is the first to provide a comprehensive account of Aristotle's concept of chance. Chance is invoked by many to explain order in the universe, the origins of life, even human freedom and happiness. An understanding of Aristotle's concept of chance is indispensable for an appreciation of his views on nature and ethics, views which have had a tremendous influence on the development of Western philosophy. Author John Dudley analyzes Aristotle's account of chance in the Physics, the Metaphysics, in his biological and ethical treatises, and in a number of his other works as well. Important complementary considerations such as Aristotle's criticism of Presocratic philosophers, particularly Empedocles and Democritus, Plato's concept of chance, the chronology of Aristotle's works, and the relevance of Aristotle's work to evolution and quantum theory are also covered in depth. This is an essential book for scholars and students of Western philosophy.