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Jacques Monod

(9 Feb 1910 - 31 May 1976)

French biochemist who shared with his fellow researchers the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. They revealed how messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is involved in protein synthesis within a cell. He headed the Pasteur Institute from 1971.

Short biography of Jacques Monod >>

Jacques Monod - “There is no intention in the universe”

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Jacques Monod quote “There is no intention in the universe”

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“The scientific attitude implies the postulate of objectivity—that is to say, the fundamental postulate that there is no plan; that there is no intention in the universe.”

— Jacques Monod

New York Times (15 Mar 1971)

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Context of Jacques Monod’s quote, “There is no intention in the universe”

Jacques Monod, having been awarded the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, gained more recognition with the smash hit of his book, Le Hazard et La Nécessité (translated as Chance and Necessity). It caught the public's imagination. Reporting in the New York Times (15 Mar 1971), John C. Hess described Monod’s belief “that all forms of life are the product of pure chance—through unpredictable mutation—and of necessity, or Darwinian selection,” which made it impossible “to accept any system, religious or materialist, that assumes a master plan of creation.”

The article quoted Monot's own words from the interview:

“What I have tried to show, is that the scientific attitude implies what I call the postulate of objectivity — that is to say, the fundamental postulate that there is no plan, that there is no intention in the universe.

Now this is basically incompatible with virtually all the religious or metaphysical systems whatever, all of which try to show that there is some sort of harmony between man and the universe and that man is a product—predictable if not indispensable—of the evolution of the universe.

“Of course, naive faiths, fundamentalist beliefs in the Bible do just that. They put man in the center of the universe and believe that for some reason there is a necessity everywhere under God’s command.

In more elaborate modern versions of Christianity you find speculations like those of Teilhard de Chardin, which give an evolutionist interpretation of the universe in which man is a sort of achievement which had been predicted from the beginning. It is again an interpretation which denies the principle of objectivity.”

Monod referred to the late French Jesuit and paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

The article reported that to date, some 155,000 copies of Monod’s book were already in print, with further translations on the way. Monod was to become the head of the Pasteur Institute the following month.

Text by Webmaster, with quote from John C. Hess, 'French Nobel Biologist Says World Based on Chance Leaves Man Free to Choose His Own Ethical Values', New York Times (15 Mar 1971), 6.

Jacques Monod quote “Every living being is <i>also</i> a fossil.”

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Jacques Monod quote “There are living systems; there is no living “matter.””

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Jacques Monod quote “In science, self-satisfaction is death.”

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See also:

Science Quotes by Jacques Monod.
9 Feb - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Monod's birth.
Jacques Monod - context of quote “Every living being is also a fossil.” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
Jacques Monod - context of quote “Every living being is also a fossil.” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
Jacques Monod - context of quote “There are living systems; there is no living “matter.”” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
Jacques Monod - context of quote “There are living systems; there is no living “matter.”” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
Jacques Monod - context of quote “There is no intention in the universe” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
Jacques Monod - context of quote “In science, self-satisfaction is death.” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
Jacques Monod - context of quote “In science, self-satisfaction is death.” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
Origins of Molecular Biology: A Tribute to Jacques Monod, by Agnes Ullmann (ed.). - book suggestion.

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)