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Minimal chemical life is a matter of degree| old_uid | 11433 |
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| title | Minimal chemical life is a matter of degree |
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| start_date | 2012/05/24 |
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| schedule | 16h |
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| online | no |
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| location_info | 1er étage, salle 28 132 |
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| details | Séance organisee en collaboration avec le séminaire de Philosophie de la Biologie de IHPST |
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| summary | This talk defends the thesis that minimal chemical life essentially involves the proper chemical integration of three chemical functionalities: information storage and processing (or, Program), harvesting of raw materials and energy from the environment (or, Metabolism), and concentration and protections of reagents (or, Compartmentalization). This PMC model of minimal chemical life is illustrated and explained with the help of Rasmussen diagrams, which depict key chemical dependencies among cellular components. The PMC model gains some support from the broad view of life as the process of creative evolution, which I have defended elsewhere (e.g., Bedau 1996, 1998), which I defend with an Aristotelian methodology that considers life only in the whole context in which it actually exists, looks at the characteristic phenomena involving actual life, and seeks the deepest and most unified explanation for those phenomena. Further support for the PMC model comes from how it resolves the puzzle about whether the life/nonlife distinction is a dichotomy or a matter of degree. |
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| responsibles | Longo, Mossio, Barandiaran |
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