Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T09:01:24.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the applicability of dialetheism and philosophy of identity to the definition of life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2010

Vera M. Kolb
Vera M. Kolb
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, WI53141, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We have found that the principles of dialetheism, which state that some contradictions (typically at the limits of a system) may be true, and which amply demonstrate the limits of thought and conception, can be valuable in sorting out and clarifying some astrobiological problems that impede our ability to define life. The examples include the classification of viruses as alive or not alive, and the description of the transition zone for the abiotic-to-biotic transition. Dialetheism gives us the philosophical tool to state that the viruses may be both alive and not alive, and that chemical systems may exist that are both abiotic and biotic.

We have extracted some philosophical principles of the identity and have applied them to the identity of living organisms and their life forms. The first and most important idea is that we should define an individual organism via its numerical identity. For each organism its identity will be in relation to itself. As the organism undergoes various changes during its development, and as it transitions from one to the next of its life forms, one can observe numerous qualitative differences between these life forms. Although the life forms change and the organism is in a flux, what remains constant is the numerical identity of the organism. If the organism reproduces, for example by a fission mode, then the daughter cells will have their own numerical identity. We can state that the life of an organism is a sum of all its life forms over the period of time of the existence of the organism. Reproduction, particularly by fission, represents an identity dilemma, but it can be resolved by Gallois' occasional identities theory.

Keywords

abiotic-to-biotic transitionAristotelian logicclassification of virusesdefinition of lifedialetheismHegel's dialecticslife formsoccasional identitythe identity problemtrue contradictions
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 131 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Forterre, P. & Gribaldo, S. (2007). Hum. Front. Sci. Program J. 1, 156–168.Google Scholar
Gallois, A. (2003). Occasions of Identity, the Metaphysics of Persistence, Change, and Sameness, pp. 1–10. 16–19, 25–28, 58–59, 64, 70–77, 101–110, 255–264. Oxford University Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallois, A. (2005). Identity over time. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity/ (accessed 13 November 2008).Google Scholar
Gottlieb, P. (2007). Aristotle on non-contradiction. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter 2007 edn, ed. Zalta, E.N.http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-noncontradiction (accessed 23 June 2008).Google Scholar
Hegel, G.W.F. (1970). Philosophy of Nature, translated by Miller, A.V., pp. 232–272. Oxford University Press, London.Google Scholar
Hegel, G.W.F. (1975). Logic, translated by Wallace, W., pp. 123–161, 265–267. Oxford University Press, London.Google Scholar
Heraclitus, (2003). Fragments, translated by Haxton, B., p. 51. Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Kahn, C.H. (1979). The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: An Edition of the Fragments with Translation and Commentary, p. 53. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kolb, V.M. (2005). Int. J. Astrobiol. 4, 227–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolb, V.M. (2007). Int. J. Astrobiol. 6, 51–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolb, V.M. (2008). On the applicability of dialetheism to the emergence of life and the classification of viruses. In Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology XI, ed. Hoover, R.B., Levin, G.V., Rozanov, A.Y. & Davis, P.C.W. (Proc. SPIE, vol. 7097), p. 709713 (1–4). The International Society of Optical Engineers, Bellingham.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolb, V.M. (2009). On the applicability of the identity problem to astrobiology. In Instruments and Methods for Astrobiology and Planetary Missions XII, ed. Hoover, R.B., Levin, G.V., Rozanov, A.Y. & Retherford, K.D. (Proc. SPIE, vol. 7441), p. 74410U (1–7). The International Society of Optical Engineers, Bellingham.Google Scholar
Kolb, V.M. & Liesch, P.J. (2008). Abiotic, biotic, and in-between. In Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology XI, ed. Hoover, R.B., Levin, G.V., Rozanov, A.Y. & Davis, P.C.W. (Proc. SPIE, vol. 7097), p. 70970A (1–6). The International Society of Optical Engineers, Bellingham.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazcano, A. (2007). Chem. Biodivers. 5, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liesch, P.J. & Kolb, V.M. (2007). Living strategies of unusual life forms on Earth and the relevance to astrobiology. In Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology X, ed. Hoover, R.B., Levin, G.V., Rozanov, A.Y. & Davis, P.C.W. (Proc. SPIE, vol. 6694), p. 66941F (1–10). The International Society of Optical Engineers, Bellingham.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, R.V. (2004). Bacteriophage-mediated transduction: an engine for change and evolution. In Microbial Evolution: Gene Establishment, Survival, and Exchange, ed. Miller, R.V. & Day, M.J., pp. 144–148. ASM Press, Washington, DC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, R.S. & Kolb, V.M. (2004). Int. J. Astrobiol. 3, 45–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plutarch, (2009). Theseus, translated by Dryden, J. The Internet Classics Archive, http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/theseus.html (accessed 30 June 2009).Google Scholar
Priest, G. (1995). Beyond the Limits of Thought, pp. 3–8, 56–70, 104–105. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Priest, G. (2006). What's so bad about contradictions? In The Law of Non-Contradiction, New Philosophical Essays, ed. Priest, G., Beall, J.C. & Armour-Garb, B., pp. 23–38. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Raoult, D. & Forterre, P. (2008). Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 6, 315–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sider, T. (2001). Br. J. Philos. Sci. 52, 401–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stroll, A. (1967). Identity. In The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 3, ed. Edwards, P., pp. 121–124. Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar
Wedin, M.V. (1999). Aristotle. In The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, ed. Audi, R., pp. 44–51. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wikipedia (2008a). Identity (philosophy). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_(philosophy) (accessed 8 July 2008).Google Scholar
Wikipedia (2008b). Ship of Theseus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus (accessed 13 November 2008).Google Scholar
Williams, C.J.F. (1995). Identity, the paradox of. In The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, ed. Honderich, T., p. 391. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. (1998). Identity. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Craig, E., pp. 675–678. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1993). Cause and effect: intuitive awareness. In Philosophical Occasions, 1912–1951, ed. Wittgenstein, L., p. 412. Hackett Publishing Co., Indianapolis.Google Scholar