Why is defining life so frustratingly difficult? Why have scientists and philosophers failed for centuries to find a specific physical property or set of properties that clearly separates the living from the inanimate? Because such a property does not exist. Life is a concept that we invented.
Definition of life:
the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.
Life is a term we created use to label those things which fits the description and definition of the term "life".
Those humans, tigers, lions, plants, gorillas...etc. which have the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death, these beings which are call life, they don't exist? Really?
That is a strawman and non sequitur in saying that scientists cannot find a specific physical property or set of properties that clearly separates the living from the inanimate because life doesn't exist.
I can also create a strawman and non sequitur saying that scientists cannot find a specific physical/spiritual property or set of properties that clearly separates God from the non-God because God doesn't exist. So there, proof that God doesn't exist.
On the most fundamental level, all matter that exists is an arrangement of atoms and their constituent particles. These arrangements fall onto an immense spectrum of complexity, from a single hydrogen atom to something as intricate as a brain. In trying to define life, we have drawn a line at an arbitrary level of complexity and declared that everything above that border is alive and everything below it is not. In truth, this division does not exist outside the mind. There is no threshold at which a collection of atoms suddenly becomes alive, no categorical distinction between the living and inanimate, no Frankensteinian spark. We have failed to define life because there was never anything to define in the first place.
Why Life Does Not Really Exist
On the most fundamental level, all matter that exists is an arrangement of atoms and their constituent particles. These arrangements fall onto an immense spectrum of complexity, from a single hydrogen atom to something as intricate as a brain. In trying to define life or WHATEVER else, we have drawn a line at an arbitrary level of complexity and declared that everything above that border is alive or WHATEVER else and everything below it is not. In truth, this division does not exist outside the mind.
There is no threshold at which a collection of atoms suddenly becomes alive, rich, green, smelly, phoney, hilarious, cabbage, carrot, banana...etc., no categorical distinction between the living and inanimate, the rich and poor, the green and red, the smelly and fragrance, the phoney and genuine, the hilarious and boring, the cabbage and non-cabbage, the carrot and non-carrot, the banana and non-banana...etc., no Frankensteinian spark. We have failed to define life or whatever anything else because there was never anything to define in the first place.
Now we can throw every dictionary and label to the rubbish can. We'll have fun at communicating with each other what we want to tell each other without any term, label or the dictionary. Because life, alive, rich, green, smelly, phoney, hilarious, cabbage, carrot, banana...etc. all of them don't exist.
What do you think?
Are we just fooling ourselves thinking that life is some special property that only an object above a certain level of complexity possesses?
No. Life is a term we created use to label those things which fits the description and definition of the term "life".
