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Single Idea 17567

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 2. Life ]

Full Idea

A flame, though it is a self-maintaining event, does not seem to be nearly so well individuated as a life.

Gist of Idea

A flame is like a life, but not nearly so well individuated

Source

Peter van Inwagen (Material Beings [1990], 09)

Book Ref

Inwagen,Peter van: 'Material Beings' [Cornell 1995], p.87

A Reaction

This is to counter the standard problem that if you attempt to define 'life', fire turns out to tick nearly all the same boxes. The concept of 'individuated' often strikes me as unsatisfactory. How does a bonfire fail to be individuated?

Related Idea

Idea 6126 Life is Movement, Respiration, Sensation, Nutrition, Excretion, Reproduction, Growth (MRS NERG) [PG]

The 21 ideas with the same theme [what distinguishes life, and its value]:

24063 What is born has growth, a prime, and a withering away [Aristotle]
23302 Plants have far less life than animals, but more life than other corporeal entities [Aristotle]
7280 As all life is one, what need is there for words? [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)]
5043 To regard animals as mere machines may be possible, but seems improbable [Leibniz]
24122 Life is forces conjoined by nutrition, to produce resistance, arrangement and value [Nietzsche]
4877 Maybe plants are very slow (and sentient) animals, overlooked because we are faster? [Dennett]
17567 A flame is like a life, but not nearly so well individuated [Inwagen]
17570 The chemical reactions in a human life involve about sixteen elements [Inwagen]
17568 A tumour may spread a sort of life, but it is not a life, or an organism [Inwagen]
17569 Unlike waves, lives are 'jealous'; it is almost impossible for them to overlap [Inwagen]
17576 If God were to 'reassemble' my atoms of ten years ago, the result would certainly not be me [Inwagen]
17580 One's mental and other life is centred on the brain, unlike any other part of the body [Inwagen]
17581 Being part of an organism's life is a matter of degree, and vague [Inwagen]
17585 Life is vague at both ends, but could it be totally vague? [Inwagen]
17586 At the lower level, life trails off into mere molecular interaction [Inwagen]
17584 Some events are only borderline cases of lives [Inwagen]
9324 From the teleopragmatic perspective, life is largely an informational process [Gulick]
7516 In 1828, the stuff of life was shown to be ordinary chemistry, not a magic gel [Pinker]
20652 In 1828 the animal substance urea was manufactured from inorganic ingredients [Watson]
20658 Information is physical, and living can be seen as replicating and preserving information [Watson]
6126 Life is Movement, Respiration, Sensation, Nutrition, Excretion, Reproduction, Growth (MRS NERG) [PG]