Abstract

BARRERA-GARCIA, Alberto  and  LOPEZ-BARONI, Manuel-Jesús. Is there a clear border between the living and the inert?. Rev. Bioética y Derecho [online]. 2018, n.43, pp.9-31. ISSN 1886-5887.

The origin of life is one of the most fascinating topics, not only in the scientific world. However, few subjects could be more frustrating to address. In this article, we analyze the criteria for distinguishing between the living and the inert. In order to clarify the different positions, we have created a model with two variables, "living matter"-"inert matter", which gives a total of four possible combinations. Each of these combinations represents a paradigm of thought with its own axioms, questions to be solved, anomalies and contradictions. With the model, we intend to classify all the existing positions regarding the appearance of life so that any author who has reflected on the matter can identify with any of the combinations, and observe in situ his or her own Weltanschauung, including the limitations, aporia, and irresolvable questions.

Keywords : origin of life; entropy; information; time; chirality; structure; cosmology; death; synthetic biology.

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