Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T20:03:06.545Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Materialistic Interpretation of Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

William Seifriz*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pa.

Extract

The attribute of living is due either to a specific state of matter or to a distinctive kind of energy. All possible interpretations of these two concepts are materialistic with one exception. There is said to be a kind of energy apart from this world. Such an assumption is vitalistic.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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

Notes

1 I am indebted to a number of associates for information on several subjects here discussed, but to none so much as to Dr. John Northrop, to whom I express my gratitude for his helpful and delightfully stimulating letters dealing with the properties of proteins, enzymes, and viruses; but I relieve him of all responsibility for the deductions made from the information obtained.