Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
4 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,817 Year: 3,074/9,624 Month: 919/1,588 Week: 102/223 Day: 13/17 Hour: 0/1


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Is there a border dividing life from non-life?
Chiroptera
Inactive Member


Message 12 of 132 (111574)
05-30-2004 1:41 PM
Reply to: Message 11 by sidelined
05-30-2004 1:22 PM


As usual with human-made categories, there are at least a couple of ways to do this. One way is simply to give a single arbitrary definition of life: something is alive if it has this, this, and this characteristics, but not that characteristic. By default, anything that doesn't fit this definition is not alive. And then accept that there will be things that "blur" the line - things that are alive or not alive according to the definition, but only in the technical sense of the definition, even though it comes close to fitting into the other category.
Another way to do it is to define life, and define non-life separately. Then there will be things that blur the dividing line by either fitting both defintions at the same time, or by fitting neither definition.
Another way would be to allow each field of research to use their own definitions so that they can talk about life and non-life in ways that are relevant to their field, even though what may be "life" to a biochemist looking at viruses may not be the same as "life" to a chemist exploring one certain step in abiogenesis.
Finally, one can just dispense with a defintion altogether - we may quibble over viruses, but we all pretty much agree on what is alive right now, and just try to find out how the process of abiogenesis gave rise to this life without worrying too much about where the dividing line between life and non-life is.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 11 by sidelined, posted 05-30-2004 1:22 PM sidelined has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 13 by sidelined, posted 05-30-2004 2:14 PM Chiroptera has replied

  
Chiroptera
Inactive Member


Message 14 of 132 (111584)
05-30-2004 3:37 PM
Reply to: Message 13 by sidelined
05-30-2004 2:14 PM


Thanks, sidelined. I realize, now that I reread it, that I agree with most of your OP. There is no clear dividing line between "living" and "non-living", and no matter how one defines "life" there are going to be problematic examples.
Such is reality. Human categories are often pretty arbitrary, as are the dividing lines. One of the most profound moments I had was I read an essay by S.J. Gould on classifying Archaeopterix as a bird or as a reptile, where he made this exact point.
Still, to understand the world we need to classify things, to make distinctions, to categorize things. Reductionism is an important tool in our conceptualizing the world; however, the limitations must always be acknowledged. There are often going to be "in-between" cases that don't fit our nice, neat categories easily, and if one takes the reductionist approach too seriously one will fail to really understand the world. And, as new understanding dawns, the old categories may become inadequate, based on the old way of thinking of things. Like the Greeks dividing matter up into fire, water, earth, and air - these categories make no sense whatsoever according to our current understanding of matter.
That's why I suggested that each field will probably have its own definition of life/non-life, either tacit or explicit. Because each field has its own paradigm, its own conception of understanding its subject matter, and needs to categorize the data in a way that makes sense to the reseachers.
Of course, as someone says in this thread, as science advances, and the different fields in abiogenesis begin to merge and reach a common understanding of what it is they are studying, then the definitions will need to be standardized.
Sorry for the rambling pseudo-philosophy. My dissertation is seriously derailed right now, so I've been given to metaphysical musings. Someday I have to write a serious of essays on this stuff.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 13 by sidelined, posted 05-30-2004 2:14 PM sidelined has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024