Chance and Necessity (was Crichton...)

John P Turnbull (jpt@ccfdev.eeg.ccf.org)
Mon, 16 Oct 95 10:30:15 EDT

Brian Harper said:
>
> I've just begun reading a collection of essays by Harold Morowitz entitled
> <Cosmic Joy & Local Pain>. Following my usual habit, I first read a few
> pages here and there at random just to see if I wanted to devote the time
> to reading the whole book. I found this initial look-through very encouraging.
> It seems one of the main intents of the book is to recover purpose and meaning
> from the tremendous advances in science that have occurred in the last 50
> years or so. Specifically, he wants to directly oppose the conclusions
> of Monod (chance and necessity) and thus people like Dawkins and Dennett.
> He even makes a comparison between Monod and Henry Morris which is bound to
> make both men very angry :-). He also attempts to introduce an argument from
> design very much along the lines that is being discussed here.
>

This essay (Cosmic Joy & Local Pain) sounds interesting. I'll see if I
can get a copy through our inter-library loan.

How does Morowitz compare Monods and Morris? Reading Monods was just as
dreadful for me as reading the French existentialists like Albert Camus
and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Monods was a classical example of a man who put philosophy before science
then called it philosophy in the name of science. Here is an example: