ABSTRACT

In this study Dr. Gregory examines how Diderot borrowed from Lucretius, Buffon, Maupertuis, and probability theory, and combined ideas from these sources in an innovative fashion to hypothesize that species are mutable and that all life arose randomly from a single prototype.

chapter |18 pages

Introduction

chapter Chapter One|33 pages

Chaos, Flux, Time, and Probability

chapter Chapter Three|21 pages

Spontaneous Generation

chapter Chapter Four|17 pages

The Chain of Beings

chapter Chapter Five|27 pages

The Mutability of Species

chapter Chapter Six|16 pages

The Ascent of Consciousness

chapter |4 pages

Conclusion