OPPapers.com

Chance Or Planning

Chance or Planning


Maureen C. Lett
HSS 208-Dr. O'Hara
April 17, 1996

Intelligence and planning are necessary factors in scientific research, however
chance and luck are also important and somewhat necessary factors. The
Autobiography of Charles Darwin and the memoir, The Double Helix, written by
James Watson, prove this assertion. Charles Darwin, James Watson and Francis
Crick were all intelligent men that planned their experiments, however without
chance and luck their success and scientific achievement would not be as great.

Intelligence and planning are important in scientific discovery, but are not
always the dominating forces that drive scientific research. Such is the case
with Charles Darwin, James Watson and Francis Crick. All three of these men
were extremely intellectual, but their intellect only contributed partially to
their success. Intellect and planning, combined with chance and luck
contributed to their overall success.

People take chances on a daily basis. If you actually stop and think about it,
life is one big game of chance. It is by chance that we are born, that we
continue to survive, and that we will eventually die. Some people feel that
this cycle occurs do to the will of God, others, like Charles Darwin believe
that it happens based on chance or natural selection. Whatever you believe or
disbelieve, life cannot be planned. No matter how hard a person attempts to
"plan" their path in life, it is by chance and luck where that path takes us.

Darwin's career was also based on chance, not planning. Darwin never planned to
become a scientist or the father of natural selection. It was by pure chance
that he obtained the job on the voyage of the Beagle, which started his career.
Darwin stated about this voyage that, "The voyage of the Beagle has been the by
far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career. . ."
(Darwin, p.76) Darwin had not planned to take the trip on the Beagle, he
obtained the...