Jacques Monod (1971) argued that certain molecular processes rely critically on the property of chemical arbitrariness, which he claimed allows those processes to "transcend the laws of chemistry". It seems natural, as some philosophers have done, to interpret this in modal terms: a biological relationship is chemically arbitrary if it is possible, within the constraints of chemical "law", for that relationship to have been otherwise than it is. But while modality is certainly important for understanding chemical arbitrariness, understanding its biological role also requires an account of the concrete causal-functional features that distinguish arbitrary from non-arbitrary phenomena. In this paper I elaborate on this under-emphasised aspect by offering a general account of these features: arbitrary relations are instantiated by mechanisms that involve molecular adapters, which causally couple two properties or processes which would otherwise be uncorrelated. Additionally, adapters work by acting as intermediate rather than cooperating causes.

中文翻译：

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化学任意性和分子衔接子的因果作用。

雅克·莫诺（Jacques Monod）（1971）认为某些分子过程至关重要地依赖于化学任意性的性质，他声称这使这些过程“超越了化学定律”。就像某些哲学家所做的那样，用模态术语来解释这似乎是自然的：如果在化学“法则”的约束下，生物学关系在化学上是任意的，则该关系可能不是原来的。但是，尽管模态对于理解化学任意性当然很重要，但了解其生物学作用还需要说明将任意和非任意现象区分开的具体因果功能特征。在本文中，我通过提供以下这些功能的一般说明来详细说明这一未强调的方面：任意关系是通过涉及分子衔接子的机制实例化的，该机制导致了两个本来就不相关的特性或过程的偶合。此外，适配器通过充当中间原因而不是协作原因来工作。