Chance and Necessity

Jacques Lucien Monod 1910–1971 – a French scientist, biochemist and microbiologist, Nobel Prize winner in Medicine and Physiology, philosopher and musician, active participant in the French Resistance during World War II. Jacques Monod wrote numerous scientific articles and just one book, which, however, immediately attracted attention and became the subject of vibrant discussions among creationists and Darwinists. Is man alone in the Universe? How and why have countless millennia of evolution made us, homo sapiens, what we are? And is there any meaning at all in the emergence of life? Consistent in his Darwinism, Monod, however, sharply deviates from Darwin's theory in everything concerning the non-randomness of transmitted traits, presenting evolution as a kind of game of biological roulette. What place is allotted to man in this game, and is he free in his choice?