
Study of protein folds adds to evidence that viruses are alive and ancient - ca98am79
http://www.kurzweilai.net/study-of-protein-folds-adds-to-evidence-that-viruses-are-alive-and-ancient
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chongli
I thought the definition of life was a matter philosophical, not scientific,
debate. How does one "find evidence" to support an open philosophical
argument?

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NhanH
Nothing specific to the article here, but in general I believe philosophical
question tends to be explain or made obsolete by scientific discovery rather
than philosophy itself. Look at the discussion on "life substance" (I forgot
the term) before we learn how to synthesize organic compound as an example.
Otherwise, the concurrent philosophical text on conscious and intelligence
would be another case where answer would likely be explain by science.

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mjburgess
This is a common view amongst people who have never studied philosophy.
Everyone is engaged in philosophy, including scientists themselves, and mostly
poorly.

Scientists in considering what data signifies life are themselves taking as
given some concept 'life' \- ie. their first step is philosophical (as ever).
You may say whatever a decision a scientist makes on concepts such as these is
obviously the best - but then history would show you totally incorrect.

It is possible to refine the method of judging the best concepts, and of
refining the questions which lead to these judgements, and of the method of
making the best deicisons with respect to them. This task is philosophy. And
"incorrect philosophy" of the past such as the vital force was a philosophy of
an incorrect science - not somehow a "pure philosophy" that had gone wrong.

A philosophy of a better science produces a better philosophy (and a better
science).

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WhitneyLand
Comes across as pedantic and somewhat bitter, possibly after having read Neil
deGrasse Tyson's comments on philosophy.

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mjburgess
Imagine engineers drawing landscapes and calling art dead. This is what we
have with the naive popularises of science today.

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cLeEOGPw
Whether viruses are classified as life or not doesn't matter and wouldn't
change anything. The important and interesting thing is that viruses probably
evolved from cells.

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pohl
We should probably just accept that life (a particular class of self
replicating systems) is not the same concept as being alive.

Then one wouldn't have a problem with accepting that viruses are life, albeit
not alive.

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toBuildSails
If viruses are alive, is a zygote within a woman yet a human being?

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JoeAltmaier
No; being alive and being a human being are not necessarily related. Your hair
is alive; your hair is not a human being.

