From Law and Chance in nature to Ultimate reality

this chapter argues that there is some traction between an ontology of nature1 based on the reality of law and chance in nature, on the one hand, and a metaphysics of ultimacy,2 on the other. Contrary to the strategy of traditional natural theology, which aims at direct entailment from aspects of an ontology of nature to theories of ultimacy, the traction i speak of has only the limited effect of making some views of ultimacy less plausible and others more plausible. this is partly because there are so many uncertainties both about the adequacy of any ontology of nature and about the completeness of the set of relevant ultimacy hypotheses that might have a claim in the discussion. Consequently, the argument presented here will not select out a decisive winner in any of the long-running competition among philosophical