I 21
Life/Mayr: in reality it is only the process of being-alive (as opposed to death) made to a thing, and does not exist as an independent entity! One can even attempt to explain that being-alive as a process can be the product of molecules that are not themselves alive.
Life: what is "life", has been strongly controversial since the 16th century. A group always claims that living organisms did not really differ from non-living matter: the physicalists.
Vitalists: living organisms have properties that inanimate matter lacks, which is why biological theories and concepts cannot be reduced to the laws of physics and chemistry.
>
Physicalism, >
Vitalism.
Today it is clear that both groups were, in a sense, right and wrong.
Today: "Organism": unites the most useful from both and rejects the extremes.
I 46
Life/Mayr: can be synthesized in the laboratory. Principally open systems, therefore subjected to the second main sentence of thermodynamics.
Cf. >
St. Kauffman, >
Second Law of Thermodynamics.
I 349
Def Life/Mayr: Activities of self-developed systems, controlled by a genetic program.
>
Self-organisation.
Def Life/Rensch
(1): Living beings are hierarchically ordered, open systems, predominantly organic compounds, which normally appear as circumscribed, cell-structured individuals of temporally limited constancy.
Def Life/Sattler 1986
(2): an open system that replicates and regulates itself, shows individuality, and subsists on energy from the environment.
MayrVs: all contain superfluous and do not go into the genetic program, which is perhaps the most important. More description than definition.
1. R. Sattler (1986). Biophilosophy. Berlin: Springer. S. 228.
2. B. Rensch (1968). Biophilosophie. Stuttgart: G. Fischer. S. 54.
