Between quantum indeterminacy and biological mutation: stability and uncertainty in a probabilistic living world

Abstract

The classical deterministic worldview that dominated science from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century has been profoundly challenged by developments in modern physics and biology. Quantum mechanics has revealed that indeterminacy and probability are not merely epistemic limitations, but intrinsic features of physical reality. At the same time, evolutionary biology has shown that random genetic variation, filtered by natural selection, is the fundamental driver of biological diversity and adaptation. This article explores the conceptual parallel between quantum indeterminacy and evolutionary randomness, not as a reduction of biology to physics, but as an epistemological reflection on how stability and order emerge from probabilistic processes across different levels of organization. By examining emergence, contingency, historical irreversibility, and the limits of prediction, the paper argues that determinism is best understood as a scale-dependent approximation rather than a foundational ontological principle. The absence of finality in nature does not imply chaos or nihilism, but invites a renewed philosophical understanding of explanation, responsibility, and scientific humility in a probabilistic universe.