The document discusses several theories of what defines life: - Atomism views life as complex arrangements and movements of atoms. - Hylomorphism sees the soul as granting life and being a property of living things, relating the soul to form and body. - Vitalism posits that life is non-material energy derived from organic materials. - Erwin Schrödinger questioned if life's events could be explained by physics and chemistry alone. - A contemporary definition includes homeostasis, organization, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction.

1. What is Life?
Douglas Goodwin
2/13/2013
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2. Atomism
everything is made of atoms
all else is void
atoms interact mechanistically as they move
life a complex arrangement (and movement) of atoms
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3. Hylomorphism
1. The soul grants life
2. Life is a property of living beings--compare knowledge and health
3. The soul is a property or properties that belong to a living thing
4. The soul is to the body as form is to matter
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4. Vitalism
Life is not material, it is energy
Life comes from organic materials
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5. What is Life?
Erwin Schrödinger, 1944
Can the events experienced and produced by a living being be
accounted for by physics and chemistry?
Inherited traits must be stored in an aperiodic crystal that contains
genetic information in its configuration of covalent chemical bonds.
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6. Contemporary Definition
1. Homeostasis: Regulation to maintain a constant state.
2. Organization: Being structurally composed of one or more cells.
3. Metabolism: Transformation of energy by converting chemicals and
energy into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic
matter (catabolism).
4. Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of anabolism than catabolism. A
growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply
accumulating matter.
5. Adaptation: The ability to change over time in response to the
environment.
6. Response to stimuli.
7. Reproduction: The ability to produce new individual organisms, either
asexually from a single parent organism, or sexually from two parent
organisms.
Wednesday, February 13, 13