Title |
Is it Useful to Have a Clear-cut Definition of Life? On the Use of Fuzzy Logic in Prebiotic Chemistry
|
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Published in |
Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, March 2010
|
DOI | 10.1007/s11084-010-9192-3 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Gilles Bruylants, Kristin Bartik, Jacques Reisse |
Abstract |
Many scientists, including one of the authors of the present paper, have devoted time to try to find a definition for life (Bersini and Reisse 2007). It is clear that a consensus will never be reached but, more importantly, it seems that the issue itself could be without major interest. It is indeed impossible to define a "natural" frontier between non-living and living systems and therefore also impossible to define dichotomic criteria which could be used in order to classify systems in one of these two classes (living or non-living). Fuzzy logic provides a natural way to deal with problems where class membership lacks sharply defined criteria. It also offers the possibility to avoid losing time with unnecessary controversies such as deciding whether a virus is, or is not, a living system. |
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