Abstract
According to Ernst Haeckel, any detailed hypothesis whatever concerning the origin of life must, as yet, be considered worthless, because up till now we have no satisfactory information concerning the extremely peculiar conditions which prevailed on the surface of the earth at the time when the first organisms developed” (Haeckel 1866). Erwin Schrödinger (1943) also expressed pessimism regarding the chances of understanding life. In the same vein: Life is like consciousness. If you think you can explain what it is, you got it all wrong” (Shaw 2002). Niels Bohr interpreted life as a fundamental property of matter analogous to certain quantum properties, to be taken as given, and thus allowing little if any logical scrutiny (Bohr 1933):
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Radu, P. Introduction. In: Between Necessity and Probability: Searching for the Definition and Origin of Life. Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics, vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39955-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39955-1_1
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