Abstract

Since Darwin first articulated the theory of evolution by natural selection ([1859] 1964), chance in biology has been considered as intimately connected with the source of heritable variation. In line with Darwin’s thinking, the Modern Synthesis, developed in the 1940s and 1950s, invoked chance to characterize genetic variation via random mutations, as well as the evolutionary processes of genetic drift. In the same vein, philosophical debates on chance in biology have been mainly focused on evolutionary theory, and more generally, on the framework of evolutionary biology. But what about chance underlying evolution? Taking the analysis of explanations found in molecular and cellular biology as a starting point, my contribution to the philosophical debate on chance in biology is to give an epistemological “dignity” to chance. The intention of the account of “stochastic explanation” (SE) developed in my dissertation is for it to function as a philosophical tool which allows the central role of chance in cellular and molecular explanation to be recognized and accounted for.