Historical Determinism and Chaos

Adams grapples with whether history follows predictable laws or is governed by random, chaotic forces, using scientific metaphors like the dynamo and the law of entropy to suggest that human agency is increasingly powerless against vast, impersonal energies.

Adams's theory of history, which he struggled to articulate, focusing on motion and relation.

Adams grapples with the tension between the deterministic forces of history and the chaotic, unpredictable nature of human experience.

Adams reflects on the unpredictability of events, noting that no one expected or intended the Civil War, and that fate dealt cards wildly.

Adams grapples with the idea of unbroken evolution versus the chaotic evidence of glaciation and the limits of scientific certainty, reflecting on the randomness of natural selection.