Jacques Monod

From Philosopedia

Monod, Jacques Lucien (9 February 1910 - 31 May 1976)

A French biologist, Monod was born in Paris. In 1965, Monod shared with Andrew Lwoff the Nobel Prize in physiology.

The author of Chance and Necessity (1971), he was associated with the French Institut Pasteur. The work was a summary of arguments from several sciences leading to his conclusion that life is entirely accidental, advanced only by Charles Darwin's rules of natural selection. "The ancient covenant is in pieces", Monod wrote. "Man knows at last that he is alone in the universe's unfeeling immensity, out of which he emerged only by chance. His destiny is nowhere spelled out, nor is his duty. The kingdom above or the darkness below; it is for him to choose".

As a child, Monod enjoyed climbing rocks and collecting fossils, but by adolescence he was frustrated that no-one could plausibly explain how life works. Becoming a biochemist, he advanced the scientific answer to that question, proposing the existence of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to explain how genes regulate cell metabolism by directing the biosynthesis of enzymes. Monod was awarded the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing the honor with André Lwoff and François Jacob for "discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of enzyme and virus synthesis".

During World War II, he was active in the French resistance, rising to chief of operations for the French Forces of the Interior.

Monod signed Humanist Manifesto II.

In his Le Hasard et la necessité, Monod wrote,

• 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.”

Monod died of cancer and is buried in the Cimetière du Grand Jas, Cannes, France. As he died of leukemia, Monod's last words were, "I am trying to understand".

(See the autobiography Monod wrote for the Nobel Prize committee.)

{HM2}