Chance & Necessity

Monod starts the preface of the book by saying that biology is both
marginal and central. He goes on to explain that it is marginal because
the living world is only a fraction of the universe. Monod believes the
ultimate aim of science is to "clarify man's relationship to the
universe" (Monod, xi) and from that reasoning he accords biology a
central role. He goes on to state that he does not intend to make a
thorough survey of modern biology but rather to "bring out the form of
its key concepts and to point out their logical relationships with other
areas of thought…it is an avowed attempt to extract the quintessence of
the molecular theory of the code" (Monod, xiii). Monod stresses the
importance of the molecular theory of the genetic code as a physical
theory of heredity and brands it as the "secret of life". He continues
to explain how this important discovery has made it the duty of
scientists to share with and enhance other disciplines of thought such
as philosophy. Toward the end of the preface Monod offers apology for
any overly tedious or technical sections. He also warns that some
ethical and political ideas he presents may seem naïve or ambitious but
then states "Modesty benefits the scientist, but not the ideas that
inhabit him and which he is under the obligation of upholding" (Monod,
xiv). In the last paragraph of the preface, Monod explains that his
essay developed from the Robins Lectures that he gave in 1969 at Pomona
College.