Abstract
The question of specific properties of life compared to nonliving things accompanied biology throughout its history. At times this question generated major controversies with largely diverging opinions. Basically, mechanistic thinkers, who tried to understand organismic functions in terms of nonliving machines, were opposed by those who tried to describe specific properties or even special forces being active within living entities. As this question included the human body, these controversies always have been of special relevance to our self-image and also touched practical issues of medicine. During the second half of the twentieth century, it seemed to be resolved that organisms are explainable basically as physicochemical machines. Especially from the perspective of molecular biology, it seemed to be clear that organisms need to be explained solely by the chemical functions of their component parts, although some resistance to this view never ceased. This research program has been working quite successfully, so that science today knows a lot about the physiological and chemical processes within organisms. However, again new doubts arise questioning whether the mere continuation of this analytical approach will finally generate a fundamental understanding of living entities. At the beginning of the twenty-first century the quest for a new synthesis actually comes from analytical empiricists themselves. The hypothesis of the present paper is that empirical research has been developed far enough today, that it reveals by itself the materials and the prerequisites to understand more of the specific properties of life. Without recourse to mysterious forces, it is possible to generate answers to this age-old question, just using recent, empirically generated knowledge. This view does not contradict the results of reductionistic research, but rather grants them meaning within the context of organismic systems and also may increase their practical usefulness. Although several of these properties have been discussed before, different authors usually concentrated on a single one or some of them. The paper describes ten specific properties of living entities as they can be deduced from contemporary science. The aim is to demonstrate that the results of empirical research show both the necessity as well as the possibility of the development of a new conception of life to build a coherent understanding of organismic functions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnellos A, Spyrou T, Darzentas J (2010) Towards the naturalization of agency based on an interactivist account of autonomy. New Ideas Psychol 28(3):296–311
Barandiaran XE, Egbert MD (2013) Norm-establishing and norm-following in autonomous agency. Artif Life 91(2):1–24. doi:10.1162/ARTL_a_00094
Barandiaran XE, Di Paolo E, Rohde M (2009) Defining agency. Individuality, normativity, asymmetry and spatio-temporality in action. J Adapt Behav 17(5):367–386
Bechtel W (2007) Biological mechanisms: organized to maintain autonomy. In: Boogerd F, Bruggeman FJ, Hofmeyr JHS, Westerhoff HV (eds) Systems biology: philosophical foundations. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 269–302
Bechtel W (2010) The downs and ups of mechanistic research: circadian rhythm research as an exemplar. Erkenntnis 73:313–328. doi:10.1007/s10670-010-9234-2
Bock G, Goode J (eds) (1998) The limits of reductionism in biology. In: Papers from the symposium held at the Novartis Foundation, London 1997. Wiley, Chichester
Boogerd F, Bruggeman FJ, Hofmeyr JHS, Westerhoff HV (eds) (2007) Systems biology: philosophical foundations. Elsevier, Amsterdam
Buchman TG (2002) The community of the self. Nature 420:246–251
Capra F, Luisi PL (2014) The systems view of life. A unifying vision. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Carroll SB (2005) Endless forms most beautiful. The new science of evo devo and the making of the animal kingdom. Norton, New York
Cavalier-Smith T (2004) The membranome and membrane heredity in development and evolution. In: Horner DS, Hirt RP (eds) Organelles, genomes and eukaryote phylogeny: an evolutionary synthesis in the age of genomics. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 335–351
Cleland CE (2013) Is a general theory of life possible? seeking the nature of life in the context of a single Example. Biol Theory 7(4):368–379
Cleland CE, Chyba CF (2002) Defining ‘life’. Orig Life Evol Biosph 32:387–393
Denton MJ, Kumaramanickavel G, Legge M (2013) Cells as irreducible wholes: the failure of mechanism and the possibility of an organicist revival. Biol Philos 28(1):31–52. doi:10.1007/s10539-011-9285-z
Deppert W, Kliemt H, Lohff B, Schaefer J (eds) (1992) Wissenschaftstheorien in der Medizin. Ein Symposium. de Gruyter, Berlin
Di Paolo EA (2005) Autopoiesis, adaptivity, teleology, agency. Phenomenol Cognit Sci 4:429–452
Downes SM (2001) The ontogeny of information. Perspect Biol Med 44(3):464–469
Drack M, Apftaler W (2007) Is Paul Weiss’ and Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s system thinking still valid today? Syst Res Behav Sci 24(5):537–546
Drack M, Wolkenhauer O (2011) System approaches of Weiss and Bertalanffy and their relevance for systems biology today. Semin Cancer Biol 21:150–155
Drack M, Apftaler W, Pouvreau D (2007) On the making of a system theory of life: Paul A Weiss and Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s conceptual connection. Q Rev Biol 82:349–373
Du Bois-Reymond EH (1872) Über die Grenzen des Naturerkennens. Veit, Leipzig
Duboule D (2003) Time for chronomics? Science 301:277
Dunlap JC, Loros JJ, DeCoursey PJ (2004) Chronobiology: biological timekeeping. Sinauer, Sunderland
Dupré J (2012) Processes of life: essays in the philosophy of biology. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Eigen M (1987) Stufen zum Leben. Die frühe Evolution im Visier der Molekularbiologie. Piper Verlag, München
Emmeche C (1997) Autopoietic systems, replicators, and the search for a meaningful biological definition of life. Ultim Real Mean 20:244–264
Farnsworth KD, Nelson J, Gershenson C (2013) Living is information processing: from molecules to global systems. Acta Biotheor 61:203–222. doi:10.1007/s10441-013-9179-3
Forgacs G, Newman SA (2005) Biological physics of the developing embryo. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Fuchs T (2009) Das Gehirn—ein Beziehungsorgan. Eine phänomenologisch-ökologische Konzeption. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart
Fuente L, Helms JA (2005) Head, shoulders, knees, and toes. Dev Biol 282:294–306. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2005.03.036
Gayon J (2010) Defining life: synthesis and conclusions. Orig Life Evol Biosph 40(2):231–244
Gerhart J, Kirschner M (1997) Cells, embryos, and evolution. Toward a cellular and developmental understanding of phenotypic variation and evolutionary adaptability. Blackwell, Malden
Gilbert SF (2014) Developmental biology, 10th edn. Sinauer, Sunderland
Gilbert SF, Sarkar S (2000) Embracing complexity: organicism for the 21st century. Dev Dynam 219:1–9
Grunwald A, Gutmann M, Neumann-Held E (eds) (2002) On human nature. Anthropological, biological, and philosophical foundations. Springer, Berlin
Haken H (1983) Synergetics. An introduction. Springer, Berlin
Hengeveld R (2011) Definitions of life are not only unnecessary, but they can do harm to understanding. Found Sci 16(4):323–325
Henning BG, Scarfe AC (2013) Beyond mechanism. Putting life back into biology. Lexington Books, Lanham
Hildebrandt G (1979) Rhythmical functional order and man’s emancipation from the time factor. In: Schaefer KE, Hildebrandt G, Macbeth N (eds) Basis of an individual physiology. Futura Publishing Comp, Mount Kisco, pp 15–43
Hildebrandt G, Moog R, Raschke F (eds) (1987) Chronobiology and chronomedicine. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt
Hoffmeyer J (2009) Biosemiotics: an examination into the signs of life and the life of signs. University of Scranton Press, Scranton
Hoffmeyer J (2013) Why do we need a semiotic understanding of life? In: Henning BG, Scarfe AC (eds) (2013): beyond mechanism. Putting life back into biology. Lexington Books, Lanham, pp 147–168
Hofmeyr JH (2007) The biochemical factory that autonomously fabricates itself: a systems biological view of the living cell. In: Boogerd F, Bruggeman FJ, Hofmeyr JHS, Westerhoff HV (eds) Systems biology: philosophical foundations. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 217–242
Hug H (2000) Apoptose: Die Selbstvernichtung der Zelle als Überlebensschutz. Biol Unserer Zeit 30(3):128–135
Jablonka E, Lamb MJ (2005) Evolution in four dimensions. Genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic variation in the history of life. MIT Press, Cambridge
Jablonka E, Raz G (2009) Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: prevalence, mechanisms and implications for the study of heredity and evolution. Q Rev Biol 84(2):131–176
Joyner M, Pedersen BK (2011) Ten questions about systems biology. J Physiol 589(5):1017–1030
Kaneko K (2006) Life: an introduction to complex systems biology. Springer, Berlin
Kather R (2003) Was ist Leben? Philosophische Positionen und Perspektiven. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt
Keller EF (2011) Towards a science of informed matter. Hist Philos Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci 42(2):174–179
Kicheva A, Cohen M, Briscoe J (2012) Developmental pattern formation: insights from physics and biology. Science 338:210–212. doi:10.1126/science.1225182
Kirschner MW, Gerhart JC (2005) The plausibility of life. Resolving Darwin’s dilemma. Yale University Press, New Haven
Kirschner M, Gerhart J, Mitchison T (2000) Molecular “vitalism”. Cell 100:79–88
Kitano H (2007) Towards a theory of biological robustness. Mol Syst Biol 3:137. doi:10.1038/msb4100179
Kolb VM (2007) On the applicability of the Aristotelian principles to the definition of life. Int J Astrobiol 6(1):51–57
Koukkari WL, Sothern RB (2006) Introducing biological rhythms. Springer, New York
Krimsky S, Gruber J (eds) (2013) Genetic explanations. Sense and nonsense. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Laland KN, Sterelny K (2006) Seven reasons (not) to neglect niche construction. Evolation 60:1751–1762
Lewontin RC (1991) Biology as ideology. Harper, New York
Lewontin R (2000) The triple helix. Gene, organism and environment. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Lewontin R, Rose S, Kamin LJ (1984) Biology, ideology, and human nature. Not in our genes. Pantheon Books, New York
Longo G, Miquel PA, Sonnenschein C, Soto AM (2012) Is information a proper observable for biological organization? Prog Biophys Mol Biol 109:108–114
Looijen RC (2000) Holism and reductionism in biology and ecology. The mutual dependence of higher and lower level research programmes. Episteme, vol 23. Kluwer, Dordrecht
Luisi PL (2003) Autopoiesis: a review and a reappraisal. Naturwissenschaften 90:49–59
Mahner M, Bunge M (1997) Foundations of biophilosophy. Springer, Heidelberg
Maturana HR, Varela FJ (1987) The tree of knowledge: the biological roots of human understanding. Shambhala Press, Boston
Mayr E (1988) Toward a new philosophy of biology. Observations of an evolutionist. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Mayr E (1996) The autonomy of biology: the position of biology among the sciences. Q Rev Biol 71(1):97–106
Mohawk JA, Green CB, Takahashi JS (2012) Central and peripheral circadian clocks in mammals. Annu Rev Neurosci 35:445–462
Moreno A, Mossio M (2015) Biological autonomy. A philosophical and theoretical enquiry. Springer, Dordrecht
Moreno A, Etxeberria A, Umerez J (2008) The autonomy of biological individuals and artificial models. BioSystems 91:309–319
Morris KV, Mattick JS (2014) The rise of regulatory RNA. Nat Rev Genet 15:423–437
Moss L (2003) What genes can’t do. MIT Press, Cambridge
Müller GB, Newman SA (2003) Origination of organismal form—beyond the gene in development and evolutionary biology. MIT Press, Cambridge
Nagel T (2012) Mind and cosmos. Why the materialist neo-Darwinian conception of nature is almost certainly false. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Newman SA (2012) Physico-genetic determinants in the evolution of development. Science 338:217–219. doi:10.1126/science.1222003
Noble D (2006) The music of life. Biology beyond genes. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Noble D (2008a) Claude Bernard, the first systems biologist, and the future of physiology. Exp Physiol 93:16–26
Noble D (2008b) Genes and causation. Philos Trans R Soc A 366(1878):3001–3015
Noble D (2011) Systems: what’s in a name? Physiology 26:126–128
Normandin S, Wolfe CT (eds) (2013) Vitalism and the scientific image in post-enlightenment life science, 1800–2010. Springer, Dordrecht
Nurse P (2008) Life, logic and information. Nature 454:424–426
Odling-Smee FJ (2010) Niche inheritance. In: Pigliucci M, Müller GB (eds) Evolution. The extended synthesis. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 175–207
Odling-Smee FJ, Laland KN, Feldman MW (2003) Niche construction: the neglected process in evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Oliver JD, Perry RS (2006) Definitely life but not definitively. Orig Life Evol Biosph 36(5–6):515–521. doi:10.1007/s11084-006-9035-4
O’Malley MA, Dupré J (2005) Fundamental issues in systems biology. BioEssays 27:1270–1276
op Akkerhuis GAJMJ (2010) Towards a hierarchical definition of life, the organism, and death. Found Sci 15(3):245–262
Oyama S (2000) The ontogeny of information: developmental systems and evolution. Duke University Press, Durham
Oyama S, Griffiths PE, Gray RD (2001) Cycles of contingency: developmental systems and evolution. MIT Press, Cambridge
Parrington J (2015) The deeper genome: why there is more to the human genome than meets the eye. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Penzlin H (2014) Das Phänomen Leben. Grundfragen der Theoretischen Biologie. Springer Spektrum, Berlin
Piccolo S (2013) Mechanics in the embryo. Nature 504:223–225
Pigliucci M, Müller G (2010) Evolution—the extended synthesis. MIT Press, Cambridge
Popa R (2010) Necessity, futility and the possibility of defining life are all embedded in its origin as a punctuated-gradualism. Orig Life Evol Biosph 40(2):183–190. doi:10.1007/s11084-010-9198-x
Purnell BA (2012) Forceful thinking. Science 338:209
Radlanski RJ, Renz H (2006) Genes, forces, and forms: mechanical aspects of prenatal craniofacial development. Dev Dynam 235:1219–1229. doi:10.1002/dvdy.20704
Rehmann-Sutter C (2000) Biological organicism and the ethics of the human-nature relationship. Theor Biosci 119:334–354
Rehmann-Sutter C (2002) Genetics, embodiment and identity. In: Grunwald A, Gutmann M, Neumann-Held EM (eds) On human nature. Anthropological, biological, and philosophical foundations. Springer, Berlin, pp 23–50
Rose S (1997) Lifelines: biology, freedom, determinism. Allen Lane, Hamondsworth
Rose H, Rose S (2013) Genes, cells and brains. The promethean promises of the new biology. Verso, London
Rosen R (1991) Life itself. A comprehensive inquiry into the nature, origin, and fabrication of life. Columbia University Press, New York
Rosslenbroich B (2006) The notion of progress in evolutionary biology—the unresolved problem and an empirical suggestion. Biol Philos 21:41–70
Rosslenbroich B (2011a) Outline of a concept for organismic systems biology. Semin Cancer Biol 21(3):156–164. doi:10.1016/j.semcancer.2011.06001
Rosslenbroich B (2011b) Patterns and processes in macroevolution. Ann Hist Philos Biol 16:171–184 (Universitätsverlag Göttingen 2013)
Rosslenbroich B (2014) On the origin of autonomy. A new look at the major transitions in evolution. Springer Cham, Heidelberg
Rosslenbroich B (2016) The significance of an enhanced concept of the organism for medicine. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Hindawi). 2016. doi:10.1155/2016/1587652
Ruiz-Mirazo K, Moreno A (2012) Autonomy in evolution: from minimal to complex life. Synthese 185:21–52. doi:10.1007/s11229-011-9874-z
Ruiz-Mirazo K, Peretó J, Moreno A (2004) A universal definition of life: autonomy and open-ended evolution. Orig Life Evol Biosph 34:323–346
Saetzler K, Sonnenschein C, Soto AM (2011) Systems biology beyond networks: generating order from disorder through self-organization. Semin Cancer Biol 21:165–174
Schad W (1982) Biologisches Denken. In: Schad W (ed) Goetheanistische Naturwissenschaft, vol 1. Allgemeine Biologie, Stuttgart, pp 9–25
Shani I (2013) Setting the bar for cognitive agency: or how minimally autonomous can an autonomous agent be? New Ideas Psychol 31(2):151–165
Shapiro JA (2011) Evolution: a view from the 21st century. FT Press Science, Upper Saddle River
Sonnenschein C, Soto AM (1999) The society of cells: cancer and control of cell proliferation. Taylor & Francis, New York
Soto AM, Sonnenschein C (2005) Emergentism as a default: cancer as a problem of tissue organization. J Biosci 30:103–118
Soto AM, Sonnenschein C (2012) Is systems biology a promising approach to resolve controversies in cancer research? Cancer Cell Int 12:12. doi:10.1186/1475-2867-12-12
Sterelny K, Griffiths PE (1999) Sex and death. An introduction to philosophy of biology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Stewart I (2002) Does god play dice?, 2nd edn. Blackwell, Malden
Strohman R (1993) Ancient genomes, wise bodies, unhealthy people: limits of a genetic paradigm in biology and medicine. Perspect Biol Med 37:112–145
Strohman R (1997) The coming Kuhnian revolution in biology. Nat Biotechnol 15:194–200
Strohman R (2002) Maneuvering in the complex path from genotype to phenotype. Science 296:701–703
Strohman R (2003) Genetic determinism as a failing paradigm in biology and medicine: implications for health and wellnes. J Soc Work Educ 39(2):169–191
Thompson E (2007) Mind in life. Biology, phenomenology, and the sciences of mind. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Tsokolov SA (2009) Why is the definition of life so elusive? epistemological considerations. Astrobiology 9(4):401–412
Turner JS (2007) The tinkerer’s accomplice. How design emerges from life itself. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Turner JS (2013) Homeostasis and the forgotten vitalist roots of adaptation. In: Normandin S, Wolfe CT (eds) Vitalism and the scientific image in post-enlightenment life science, 1800–2010. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 271–291
van der Steen WJ (1997) Limitations of general concepts: a comment on Emmeche’s definition of “life”. Ultim Real Mean 20:317–320
Varela F, Maturana H, Uribe R (1974) Autopoiesis: the organization of living systems, its characterization and a model. BioSystems 5:187–195
Walker SI (2014) Top-down causation and the rise of information in the emergence of life. Information 5:424–439. doi:10.3390/info5030424
Weingarten M (1993) Organismen—Objekte oder Subjekte der Evolution? Philosophische Studien zum Paradigmawechsel in der Evolutionsbiologie. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt
Weiss PA (1963) The cell as unit. J Theor Biol 5:389–397
Weiss PA (1968) From cell to molecule. In: Weiss PA (ed) Dynamics of development: experiments and inferences. Selected papers on developmental biology, pp 24–95
Weiss PA (1969) The living system: determinism stratified. In: Koestler A, Smythies JR (eds) Beyond reductionism. New perspectives in the life sciences. Hutchinson, London, pp 3–55
Weiss PA (1971) The basic concept of hierarchic systems. In: Weiss PA (ed) Hierarchically organized systems in theory and practice. Hafner Publishing Company, New York, pp 1–43
Weiss PA (1973) The science of life: the living system—a system for living. Futura, New York
Weiss PA (1977) The system of nature and the nature of systems: empirical holism and practical reductionism harmonized. In: Schaefer K, Hensel H, Brady R (eds) Toward a man-centered medical science. A new image of man in medicine, vol 1. Futura Publishing Company, Mt. Kisko, pp 17–63
West-Eberhard MJ (2003) Developmental plasticity and evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Willmer P (2003) Convergence and homoplasy in the evolution of organismal form. In: Müller GB, Newman A (eds) Origination of organismal form. Beyond the gene in development and evolutionary biology. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 33–49
Woese C (2004) A new biology for a new century. Microbiol Mol Biol R 68(2):173–186
Wozniak MA, Chen CS (2009) Mechanotransduction in development: a growing role for contractility. Nat Rev Mol Cell Bio 10:34–43
Wuketits FM (1981) Biologie und Kausalität: Biologische Ansätze zur Kausalität, Determination und Freiheit. Parey Verlag, Berlin
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rosslenbroich, B. Properties of Life: Toward a Coherent Understanding of the Organism. Acta Biotheor 64, 277–307 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-016-9284-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-016-9284-1