The Irreducible Novelty of Chemistry in Natural History

Abstract

The central metaphor of nature as a watch has colored the debate about natural theology since Paley and Darwin. However, a chemical interpretation of natural history will differ because chemical systems do not work like watches. Here, a natural history of chemical constraints proposed by R. J. P. Williams is interpreted through Joseph Earley's two modes of "chemical becoming" with classical realism and the philosophy of emergence. This interpretation shifts attention from a system's irreducible complexity to its irreducible novelty, focusing on its novel existence and its transcendental truth, goodness, and beauty. A view of natural history in which irreducible novelty evolves through chemistry has several advantages: it accommodates continuous change (giving direction to a gradual mechanism of evolution) and irreversible change (providing an important yet limited role for chance rather than denying its existence or overemphasizing its power). A chemical perspective perceives the inherent "makeability" and manifest order of the universe.