THE CONCEPT OF CHANCE IN PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE

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CHANCE
Chance and spontaneity are also among the causes for many things that are said to be and come to be as a result of chance and spontaneity. Some people held that chance does not exist, for it has a definite cause. Example; one going to the market to buy something and meet a person he has wanted to see but did not expect to see to see him in the market. They argued that there is another thing which is the cause and not the chance, for if chance exist, the wise men of old must have noticed it. They further stated that it is not by chance that the vine came from a particular seed, and animals bringing forth animals of the same kind. For chance is not responsible for the existence and generation of animals.
Chance is an accidental cause, Example; a man is engaged in collecting subscription for a feast. He went somewhere for another purpose and not the purpose of collecting money, and somebody gave him money for subscription of the feast. It was accidental that he got the money by going there, which was not his intention nor is the end effected (getting the money). The cause of what comes by chance is indefinite. The causes of the man coming and getting his money when he did not come for the sale of that, are innumerable. The causes may include; He may have wished to see body, or been following somebody or have gone to see a spectacle (…). to say that chance is uncountable is correct. Cause and chance is indefinite and chance itself indefinite.
Chance is termed good when the result is good and evil when it is evil, and that is how good fortune or ill fortune come about.
What is not capable of action cannot do anything by chance because it is incapable of choice. Thus inanimate thing or a beast or a child cannot do anything by chance because it is incapable of choice, but they can be effected by choice. Spontaneity and chance are causes of effects which, though they might result from intelligence or nature, have infact been caused by something accidentally. Nothing which is accidental is prior to what is per se, spontaneity and chance are posterior to intelligence and nature.

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