Chance and Necessity
E906383
Chance and Necessity is a 1970 philosophical and scientific essay by biologist Jacques Monod that explores how random processes and natural selection underpin the evolution of life and challenge traditional teleological and religious explanations.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Chance and Necessity canonical | 2 |
| Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11120923 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Chance and Necessity Context triple: [Jacques Monod, notableWork, Chance and Necessity]
-
A.
The Logic of Chance
The Logic of Chance is an influential 1866 book by John Venn that helped establish the frequency interpretation of probability and advanced the philosophical foundations of statistical reasoning.
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B.
The Nature of Necessity
The Nature of Necessity is a highly influential work of analytic philosophy in which Alvin Plantinga develops a rigorous account of modal logic, possible worlds, and the metaphysics of necessity and possibility.
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C.
Of the Laws of Chance
Of the Laws of Chance is an early 18th-century treatise on probability and games of chance by John Arbuthnot, helping to popularize mathematical approaches to randomness and risk.
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D.
Freedom and Necessity
Freedom and Necessity is a notable essay by Bertrand Russell that explores the relationship between human free will and determinism.
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E.
The Taming of Chance
The Taming of Chance is a influential philosophical and historical study by Ian Hacking that examines how concepts of probability and statistical thinking transformed modern understandings of chance, causality, and social regulation.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Chance and Necessity Target entity description: Chance and Necessity is a 1970 philosophical and scientific essay by biologist Jacques Monod that explores how random processes and natural selection underpin the evolution of life and challenge traditional teleological and religious explanations.
-
A.
The Logic of Chance
The Logic of Chance is an influential 1866 book by John Venn that helped establish the frequency interpretation of probability and advanced the philosophical foundations of statistical reasoning.
-
B.
The Nature of Necessity
The Nature of Necessity is a highly influential work of analytic philosophy in which Alvin Plantinga develops a rigorous account of modal logic, possible worlds, and the metaphysics of necessity and possibility.
-
C.
Of the Laws of Chance
Of the Laws of Chance is an early 18th-century treatise on probability and games of chance by John Arbuthnot, helping to popularize mathematical approaches to randomness and risk.
-
D.
Freedom and Necessity
Freedom and Necessity is a notable essay by Bertrand Russell that explores the relationship between human free will and determinism.
-
E.
The Taming of Chance
The Taming of Chance is a influential philosophical and historical study by Ian Hacking that examines how concepts of probability and statistical thinking transformed modern understandings of chance, causality, and social regulation.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical essay ⓘ scientific essay ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
evolution is driven by random processes filtered by natural selection
ⓘ
life has no inherent purpose or final cause ⓘ objective knowledge requires methodological objectivity ⓘ religious explanations of life are incompatible with modern biology ⓘ scientific understanding undermines traditional teleological explanations ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Nobel laureate Jacques Monod
ⓘ
linked to:
Jacques Monod
|
| author | Jacques Monod ⓘ |
| basedOn | lectures by Jacques Monod ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
chance
ⓘ
natural selection ⓘ necessity ⓘ random mutation ⓘ teleonomy ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | France ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn | France ⓘ |
| genre |
philosophy of biology
ⓘ
philosophy of science ⓘ popular science ⓘ |
| hasEnglishTranslation |
Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology
ⓘ
linked to:
Chance and Necessity
|
| hasPart |
analysis of protein structure and function
ⓘ
critique of teleological thinking in biology ⓘ critique of vitalism ⓘ discussion of the genetic code ⓘ reflection on human freedom and ethics ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Darwinian evolution
ⓘ
existentialist philosophy ⓘ molecular genetics ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
atheism
ⓘ
ethics ⓘ evolution ⓘ molecular biology ⓘ natural selection ⓘ philosophy of life ⓘ teleology ⓘ |
| notableFor |
articulating a rigorous materialist view of life
ⓘ
its influence on debates about science and religion ⓘ popularizing molecular biology for a general audience ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | French ⓘ |
| originalTitle | Le Hasard et la Nécessité ⓘ |
| positionOnEthics | proposes an ethics grounded in scientific understanding of life ⓘ |
| positionOnReligion | supports a naturalistic and atheistic worldview ⓘ |
| positionOnTeleology | rejects intrinsic teleology in nature ⓘ |
| publicationType | non-fiction ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1970 ⓘ |
| publisher | Éditions du Seuil ⓘ |
| relatedField | evolutionary biology ⓘ |
| relatedWork | The Selfish Gene ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Chance and Necessity Description of subject: Chance and Necessity is a 1970 philosophical and scientific essay by biologist Jacques Monod that explores how random processes and natural selection underpin the evolution of life and challenge traditional teleological and religious explanations.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Monod
Chance and Necessity
→
hasEnglishTranslation
→
Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology
ⓘ
linked to: Chance and Necessity