causation (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, June 02, 2014, 01:36 (3828 days ago) @ GateKeeper

GK: "by chance" is an unpredictable outcome to me. Within a set of conditions that is.
> 
> I can use chance to predict a set of outcomes. But that seems different to me.-In Darwin theory mutations happen by 'chance'. The events in DNA are not predetermined according to this theory. They are accidents, which are chance events. There is no specification. This is the sort of 'chance' meaning I'm using, not the odds of flipping a coin. This is not measuring chance by statistical methods, but discussing events appearing by chance contingencies. Darwin's original thesis was that evolution proceeded by chance mutation and then natural selection. That is entirely passive and has no directionality. There was some change in the theory when Neo-Darwinsm added Mandellian genetics. Now much has been discoverd about epigenetics and chance mutation has assumed much less importance. This is the way I am using the word 'chance'.