Approaches to the Question, ‘What is Life?’: Reconciling Theoretical Biology with Philosophical Biology

• Main Author: Arran Gare
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cosmos and History Publishing Co-op. 2008-10-01
• Series: Cosmos and History : the Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy
• Subjects: Philosophical biology; theoretical biology; life, biosemiotics; process philosophy; Robert Rosen; Hans Jonas; Jacob von Uexküll; Max Delbrück; C.H. Waddington; F.W.J. Schelling; C.S. Peirce
• Online Access: http://www.cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/109

!--[if gte mso 9]xml w:WordDocument w:ViewNormal/w:View w:Zoom0/w:Zoom w:Compatibility w:BreakWrappedTables/ w:SnapToGridInCell/ w:WrapTextWithPunct/ w:UseAsianBreakRules/ /w:Compatibility w:BrowserLevelMicrosoftInternetExplorer4/w:BrowserLevel /w:WordDocument /xml![endif]-- !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- !--[if gte mso 10] style /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} /style ![endif]-- p style="text-align: justify" class="MsoNormal"spanPhilosophical biologists have attempted to define the distinction between life and non-life to more adequately define what it is to be human. They are reacting against idealism, but idealism is their point of departure, and they have embraced the reaction by idealists against the mechanistic notion of humans developed by the scientific materialists. Theoretical biologists also have attempted to develop a more adequate conception of life, but their point of departure has been within science itself. In their case, it has involved efforts to overcome the reductionism of scientific materialism to develop a form of science able to identify and explain the distinctive characteristics of living beings. So, while both philosophical biologists and theoretical biologists are struggling to overcome scientific materialism, they are approaching the question: What is Life? from different directions. Focussing on the work of Robert Rosen, in this paper I will try to show what revisions in our understanding of science theoretical biologists need to accept in order to do justice to the insights of the philosophical biologists. I will suggest that these revisions should be accepted, and spell out some of the implications of such a science./span/p