> > Life always struck me as having an absolute property. A thing is > either alive of not alive – there is no gradual progression in- > between.
What is striking you here above is nothing else that a simple property of any discreet chain/group, where there is nothing in between its elements (actually the instance in between is not "nothing", but "null") For instance integers, ASCII, or the apples in that basket, if you simplify enough, you get just one concept which is a discreet group. So is not worth to say it so complicated as "the absolute property of life", which besides is not as simple as you stated, why do you think a "thing is either alive or not alive" ?, and why do you believe that the answer has anything to do with Life. When you say Life is a concept, and not a matter of words or abstractions, what does that suppose to mean, will you describe a concept which is not an abstraction. > > My personal inclination is towards the possibility of an unknowable > origin and sustaining force of life itself. This force which keeps the > whole from disintegrating into its constituent parts. It is > “unknowable” in the sense that our reasoning faculties are part and > parcel of “our being alive” and we can not objectively stand back to > sufficiently examine the subject at hand. > > I would thus discard the phrases “meaningless” and “in language only” > for the concept of “life” used by some responders while retaining the > phrase “eluding definition” when such a definition is sought for the > concept of “life” in general. We can at most define “life” for very > specific applications as some responders have emphasized. > > On Dec 24, 12:11 pm, Awori <[email protected]> wrote: > > > In heated discourse about the meaning of nature---I was one time asked > > to define life. This is what I said: "Life is a moment in space and > > time". To my disappointment--I got no reaction from the group. Is it > > because I was absurdly wrong? I have continued to use this response as > > my standard explanation of what life is. Has anyone in out there given > > this age old subject a better look? > > > AA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Epistemology" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/epistemology?hl=en.
