Biology and Philosophy "50 years of Chance and Necessity"

About the lecture

Jacques Monod (1910-1976) was a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and in 1965 he shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with two colleagues from the same institute, François Jacob and André Lwoff, for discovering mechanisms that control how genes work. Monod had philosophical interests throughout his life and was a friend of Albert Camus and other existentialist thinkers. In the book "Chance and Necessity", published in 1970, Monod examines the philosophical implications of modern biology. The title alludes to Democritus and sums up the book's main thesis: that a combination of determinism and chance is enough to explain the universe, the biosphere and our own existence without invoking supernatural explanations. The materialism of "Chance and Necessity" attracted much criticism and controversy, which Monod had already anticipated in the book's preface: "It is unwise today for a man of science to use the word philosophy, even if he immediately qualifies it as natural, in the title or subtitle of a book. For it condemns the book to a suspicious reception from scientists and, at best, a condescending one from philosophers". Fifty years later, Monod's materialism has been overtaken by even more radical authors such as Richard Dawkins. Even so, the clarity of "Chance and Necessity" in philosophising with scientific arguments remains admirable. The book also contains a (very French) dose of literary flourishes that make it an entertaining read.

Text of the official description published by IAA-CSIC on YouTube.