"Chance doesn't mean meaningless randomness, but historical contingency. This happens rather than that, and that's the way that novelty, new things, come about"
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John Polkinghorne’s words invite consideration of chance not as purposeless chaos but as a vital part of how novel outcomes arise in the world, through the specific, contingent events that could have unfolded differently. By distinguishing chance from “meaningless randomness,” Polkinghorne emphasizes that the unpredictable does not equate to disorder; rather, it signals the role of unique historical sequences in shaping reality. Chance here is not dismissive, not an accident devoid of significance, but a descriptor for the situated alternatives within the unfolding of history.
Historical contingency refers to the way outcomes are dependent on the intricacies of previous events and decisions. If circumstances had diverged at a critical juncture, the present may look radically different. Contingency thus forms the fertile ground upon which innovation and novelty flourish. The emergence of new ideas, forms, or entities often arises because a particular event occurred instead of another, or because a confluence of factors led to an unanticipated development. This is not randomness stripped of meaning, but a tapestry woven from the threads of many possible paths, only some of which are realized.
Polkinghorne’s insight gestures toward an understanding of creativity and evolution, whether of life, art, or ideas, as processes grounded in choice, variation, and the unpredictable consequences of actions and accidents. Even in systems governed by regularities or laws, the interjection of contingency allows for the spontaneous generation of complexity and diversity. In this light, chance is not opposed to meaning but is an engine of meaningful change. True novelty requires a world in which “this happens rather than that,” where the specificity of events allows for the blossoming of the new, shaping the present not as a mechanistic inevitability, but as the outcome of a history laden with possibility.
Historical contingency refers to the way outcomes are dependent on the intricacies of previous events and decisions. If circumstances had diverged at a critical juncture, the present may look radically different. Contingency thus forms the fertile ground upon which innovation and novelty flourish. The emergence of new ideas, forms, or entities often arises because a particular event occurred instead of another, or because a confluence of factors led to an unanticipated development. This is not randomness stripped of meaning, but a tapestry woven from the threads of many possible paths, only some of which are realized.
Polkinghorne’s insight gestures toward an understanding of creativity and evolution, whether of life, art, or ideas, as processes grounded in choice, variation, and the unpredictable consequences of actions and accidents. Even in systems governed by regularities or laws, the interjection of contingency allows for the spontaneous generation of complexity and diversity. In this light, chance is not opposed to meaning but is an engine of meaningful change. True novelty requires a world in which “this happens rather than that,” where the specificity of events allows for the blossoming of the new, shaping the present not as a mechanistic inevitability, but as the outcome of a history laden with possibility.
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| Topic | Free Will & Fate |
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