◾ Elusive Definition of Life: A Survey of Main Ideas

This is the first attempt at analyzing philosophical works about Motherland by Ivan Ilyin (written in the 1920s) as the solid ideological structure, which influenced literature of the Russian emigration of the 1920s as well as Russian émigré selfawareness. The article describes the system of Ilyin’s thought in its dynamics: from his first speeches, delivered in Berlin in 1922, towards the speeches (and articles) of the second half of the 1920s. It highlights certain changes in the definition of the Motherland: in the beginning of his philosophical career, Ilyin understands Motherland as related to the Civil War and the interests of the White Army; later, he moves this concept to religious sphere; by the end of the 1920s he relegates Motherland to the context of world history and Russian culture. Several examples show how Ilyin’s philosophy influenced (or sounds in consonance with), main ideas of the early émigré literature (including novels and political articles by Ivan Bunin, Nina Berberova, Vladimir Nabokov, and Marina Tsvetaeva). That Ivan Ilyin, a former professor of law turned into the greatest ideologist of Russia Abroad is a typical sign of the time and the proof of politicization of Russian philosophy.

Download Full-text

Definition of Life Law and the Situation with Problems of China's Life Jurisprudence

Journal international de bioéthique et d éthique des sciences ◽

10.3917/jib.194.0033 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. 33

Author(s):

Changqiu Liu

Keyword(s):

Definition Of Life ◽

Definition Of

Download Full-text

Proximate Definition of Life.

The Principles of Psychology ◽

10.4324/9781003191902-36 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 353-365

Author(s):

Herbert Spencer ◽

Michael Taylor

Keyword(s):

Definition Of Life ◽

Definition Of

Download Full-text

What is life?

The Major Transitions in Evolution ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198502944.003.0006 ◽

1997 ◽

Author(s):

John Maynard Smith ◽

Eors Szathmary

Keyword(s):

Natural Selection ◽

Origin Of Life ◽

Definition Of Life ◽

The Sun ◽

Physical Processes ◽

Living Things ◽

Survival And Reproduction ◽

The Origin Of Life ◽

Definition Of ◽

Life On Earth

Imagine that, when the first spacemen step out of their craft onto the surface of one of the moons of Jupiter, they are confronted by an object the size of a horse, rolling towards them on wheels, and bearing on its back a concave disc pointing towards the Sun. They will at once conclude that the object is alive, or has been made by something alive. If all they find is a purple smear on the surface of the rocks, they will have to work harder to decide. This is the phenotypic approach to the definition of life: a thing is alive if it has parts, or ‘organs’, which perform functions. William Paley explained the machine-like nature of life by the existence of a creator: today, we would invoke natural selection. There are, however, dangers in assuming that any entity with the properties of a self-regulating machine is alive, or an artefact. In section 2.2, we tell the story of a self-regulating atomic reactor, the Oklo reactor, which is neither. This story can be taken in one of three ways. First, it shows the dangers of the phenotypic definition of life: not all complex entities are alive. Second, it illustrates how the accidents of history can give rise spontaneously to surprisingly complex machine-like entities. The relevance of this to the origin of life is obvious. In essence, the problem is the following. How could chemical and physical processes give rise, without natural selection, to entities capable of hereditary replication, which would therefore, from then on, evolve by natural selection? The Oklo reactor is an example of what can happen. Finally, section 2.2 can simply be skipped: the events were interesting, but do not resemble in detail those that led to the origin of life on Earth. There is an alternative to the phenotypic definition of life. It is to define as alive any entities that have the properties of multiplication, variation and heredity. The logic behind this definition, first proposed by Muller (1966), is that a population of entities with these properties will evolve by natural selection, and hence can be expected to acquire the complex adaptations for survival and reproduction that are characteristic of living things.

Download Full-text