PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF BIOLOGY: WHAT IS LIFE?

Abstract

For a long time “What is Life?” it was not a question of a scientific nature and the reasons for this were the most diverse. In general, scientists believed that there was no need to conceptualize life for the development of their empirical research, considering the recognition of quality or qualitative aspects as something unscientific. In addition, there is another historical reason, this much more striking, which would be related to the very difficulty of achieving a universal concept of life. In general, the process of understanding an object is understood, as the formulation of a definition for it. This definition process emerges from a complex structural relationship between the set of words and their relationship with their meanings and signifiers, which arise from the moment when the possibilities of relationships between them and the epistemic are known. Among the different conceptions and attempts to conceptualize Life, it is possible to highlight the Reductionist with its character, as much as mechanistic and with an approach called bottom-up, while the Holistic or Systemic with a top-down view. Although the term Life does not have a definition expressed in a sentence in an elegant, general, coherent and comprehensive way, such as Einstein's description of Relativity. In the future with a greater understanding of Nature and the very conditions of the Universe, perhaps it will be possible to have an epistemic perspective more consistent with the meaning and knowledge about “What is Life?”.