What is life? It would seem a very simple question to which each of us knows the answer. After all, we all live, exist for a certain period of time, and then leave this world. Therefore, this concept is not new for us.
However, when you start to think about this question, the answer seems not nearly as obvious as previously thought. The fact is that, most likely, this concept cannot be deciphered only with the help of words. It is somewhere inside each of us, somewhere in the soul and heart.
If we turn to scientific interpretations, the definition of life sounds something like this: “This is the way of existence of biological organisms of the entire planet and of an individual organism.” Biology gives us this decoding. If we summarize all the proposed explanations given by scientists in one field or another, it becomes clear that life is a form of active “presence” of an organism on Earth.
Let's think about what life is, relying only on our natural ideas, without involving theory. Many people believe that we live because we exist. But is it? who would argue with this.
Imagine a standard situation that can happen to anyone: problems at work, the family is collapsing, relationships with children are not working out... This is a simple scheme that occurs very often. And that person who stands in its center believes that he does not LIVE at all, but simply EXISTS! So what is life in this case? Life is also in the soul. After all, for each of us there are certain concepts necessary for happiness, that is, for a harmonious existence. For some it is love, for others it is work, and for many it is family and children. The list can be continued indefinitely, but this is not what is important here: you just need to understand what you need so that your life does not turn into a miserable existence.
Now let's think about why the concept of “Life” is so difficult to decipher. All the words with which we appeal when analyzing our earthly existence were invented by us ourselves, that is, people. However, the meaning that is put into them cannot be put into simple human expressions. It is hidden somewhere deep, inside the concept, and we cannot fully explain it.
For example, many people simply do not trust the scientific explanations that scientists offer us. They rely only on their inner feelings. Laws are made only for those who accept them. The rest live according to the dictates of their hearts and conscience. Maybe this would be completely correct if we knew how to carefully “listen” to ourselves, and, most importantly, “hear.” We do not always interpret the signals that the body gives us correctly.
Therefore, in order to understand what life is for you, first of all, turn to your inner “I”, ask it what you need for happiness and harmony. After all, if you receive the correct answers to your questions and are able to decipher them, then your earthly existence will be filled with meaning. If you really need to get an answer to this question, then you still don’t see the full meaning in your life. Otherwise, such thoughts would not occur to you.
The smile of a child, the joy of meeting a loved one, a promotion, the health of parents - this is what evokes in each of us a storm of positive emotions and a feeling of fullness of life. It is a full-fledged existence that turns us into a person who is able to appreciate the world around us and what happens to her. Know how to see happiness, enjoy it, feel it, because this is life as it is! After all, it is emotions that make us full-fledged residents of society and people in general. So let's match! Although it is very difficult!
What is life"? How to spell this word correctly. Concept and interpretation.
LIFE LIFE - 1) A term of classical philosophy that captures the way of being of entities endowed with internal activity, in contrast to those requiring an external source of movement and evolution of inanimate objects. Within the framework of hylozoism, life is thought of as an immanent property of primordial matter, actually synonymous with being, in contrast to death as non-existence (compare with the idea of “inert” matter within the framework of mechanism, which presupposes one or another version of the prime mover as a source of “force” , which sets it in motion). 2) The concept of non-classical philosophy, which underlies the philosophy of the “life world” and denotes the intuitively comprehended integrity of the reality of being: the living as natural as opposed to the constructed as artificial (Nietzsche); “vital impulse” as the form-creation of the cosmic force of J. (Bergson); Life as a direct internal experience, unique in its content and revealed in the sphere of spiritual-communicative or spiritual-historical experience (Dilthey, Simmel). 3) A term of natural science, denoting a way of existence of systems that involves metabolism, irritability, the ability for self-regulation, growth, reproduction and adaptation to environmental conditions. Life is the object of study in many natural sciences, but primarily in biology. The question of the essence of life and its definition has been and remains the subject of debate in various philosophical and natural science areas. From the second half of the 20th century. Two main approaches to the definition of life began to clearly appear—substrate and functional. Supporters of the first interpretation of the essence of life pay attention to the substrate (protein or DNA molecules) that is the bearer of the basic properties of living things. The latter consider life from the point of view of its basic properties (metabolism, self-reproduction, etc.). Modern natural science has significantly enriched the understanding of the nature of the material carrier of life, which is an integral system of interconnected biopolymers - proteins, nucleic acids, etc. Modern science has substantiated the position about the diversity of life forms and that their carriers are living systems of varying degrees of complexity and organization . At the same time, the following main levels of organization of living things are distinguished: organismal, population-species, biocenotic and biosphere. The focus of researchers on understanding the characteristics of one or another level of organization of living things has led to the isolation of levels of knowledge and its study. At present, the most effective level has proven to be that associated with knowledge of the molecular basis of life. Its implementation led biology to epoch-making discoveries in the field of knowledge of the molecular foundations of life and their universality for all living things. The possibilities of this level of research are still far from being realized, however, the development trends of modern scientific knowledge have led it to the need to move to the study of even deeper structures and processes of living things. The object of research is the atomic and electronic level of organization of living structures. Thus, ideas about the atomic and electronic states of living structures, in particular, J. Bernal considered it necessary to include in the definition of the essence of life: “Life is partial, continuous, progressive, diverse and interacting with the environment, the self-realization of the potential capabilities of the electronic states of atoms.” Another trend in understanding the essence of life is the study of the features of its manifestation at supraorganism levels of the organization of living things. This trend was substantiated by Vernadsky. In the system of his doctrine of living matter, he emphasized the importance of studying “totals of organisms”, their complexes, which will allow us to discover “new properties of life”, its “manifestations” at the biocenotic and biosphere level. Today, the need for such research is determined not only by cognitive tasks, but also by the tasks of preserving life on Earth. Views on the problem of life that differ from the natural sciences are offered by religious doctrines, as well as various philosophical concepts that emphasize the problems of man and his purpose in the world, as well as specifically comprehending the phenomenon of death. (see also: PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, LIFE WORLD).
LIFE- LIFE w. live, live, common people's belly; life, being; the state of an individual, the existence of an individual... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
LIFE- Life in a philosophical sense is a way of existence in which the multiplicity of parts and the difference of...
1. The set of phenomena occurring in organisms. From the standpoint of materialism, it is a special form of existence and movement of matter that spontaneously arose at a certain stage of its development. 2. Physiological existence of a living organism. 3. The activity of a subject or society in certain manifestations.
LIFE
English life). Extracting the subject of scientific research from the life context and returning the results to it is a task that science faces sooner or later. An obstacle to its solution is the contradiction between the richness of ideas about life, the multiplicity of its images and the poverty of one-sided abstractions, which are often not related to life in all the richness of its manifestations. In Sov. In science there was (and in the Soviet Union it was practiced) a definition of fluid that was as indisputable as it was meaningless as a method of existence of protein bodies. A. A. Ukhtomsky wrote passionately about this: “Science is a fundamentally coherent understanding of the world... or “life understanding.” Therefore, it is an offense against the basic principle of science when they want to understand life from its scientific side. modern physiology, modern biology, this is how materialism of all times has sinned and continues to sin.” Ukhtomsky was not satisfied that such definitions of Zh. were not related to the interests of immediate consciousness, philosophy, and, let us add, psychology.
The definition of a woman should be based on her value. Ukhtomsky gave the following “definition” (1927): “L. - asymmetry with constant oscillation on the edge of a sword, kept more or less in balance only with aspiration, with constant movement. An energetic chemical element puts living matter in a dilemma: if we linger on the accumulation of this substance, then death, and if it is immediately used actively, then the involvement of energy in the cycle of life, construction, synthesis, life itself. In the end, the same factor serves as the last reason for death for the dying person and the reason for the worsening of life. for the one who will live." In this definition, it is not balance, but discrepancy, asymmetry that is the norm. Disharmony predominates in life. Equilibrium is only a moment, the condition of which is constant aspiration and movement. Replacing “chemical substance” with experience, knowledge, and “living substance” with a living being, we obtain a description of human life as an asymmetry, with a constant oscillation on the edge of a sword between cognition and action, consciousness and activity, mind and heart, experience and its use etc. This is a more plausible understanding of life, including spiritual life, in comparison with the balance, unity, homeostasis, harmony, and peace coveted by many generations of physiologists and psychologists.
The inclusion in the definition of life not only of movement and energy, but also of aspiration, i.e., a seemingly subjective circumstance, is not accidental for Ukhtomsky. He repeatedly emphasized that the subjective is no less objective than the so-called objective: “the subjective and the objective go hand in hand and correlatively, directly turning one into the other.” “Constant aspiration,” included in J.’s definition, is a reality that represents the psyche (and perhaps the soul?]), which Ukhtomsky’s contemporary A. N. Severtsov recognized as a factor of evolution (see Adaptation). (V.P. Zinchenko.)
LIFE
1. A complete set of those properties that distinguish living from non-living. For the moment we must be content with the unsatisfactory circularity of this definition. It is rightly said that biologists began to make progress only when they abandoned attempts to define this term. 2. The actual state of being alive, which is manifested by the performance of various functions associated with life, such as metabolism, growth, reproduction and adaptation to the environment. 3. The time between birth and death. The fixation of these two poles here turned out to be unreliable. The question of whether life (in the sense of an individual organism) begins at conception, at birth, or at some intermediate stage of pregnancy (for example, from the moment when the fetus is capable of surviving outside the womb) has troubled judges, theologians, philosophers and scientists without, until still, satisfactory resolution. Similar problems arise when determining death.
LIFE
1. One of the forms of existence of matter, which naturally arises under certain conditions in the process of its development. 2. The period of time between the birth and death of a person. Objects that possess life are called organisms. Organisms differ from inanimate objects in their metabolism, irritability, ability to reproduce, develop, evolve, adapt to the environment, regulate their composition and functions, etc. Organisms are the object of study of biology. Conflicts are one of the manifestations of life in organisms with a psyche. Therefore, the understanding of conflicts will become more complete and systemic when their place and functions in the process of life are determined. In the life of a particular person, the main question is about its meaning. Many people not only do not answer this question, but also do not ask it. This is an indirect but significant cause of a number of problems that humanity faces today. Any wars, murders, suicides with t.zr. F. are not only meaningless, but also extremely destructive. Social conflicts often bring death - cessation.
(What is the main difference between living and inert nature?)
Lvov Iosif Georgievich
The article offers a fundamentally new (and at the same time completely simple, naturally arising from fundamental physical laws) answer to the eternal human question about the essence of the phenomenon of life.
If the direct goal of any scientific work is to reveal the secrets of nature, then it also has another, no less valuable effect on the mind of the researcher. It makes him the owner of methods, and nothing but scientific work could lead him to their development; this puts him in a position from which many areas of nature, in addition to those he studied, appear before him in a new light.
J.C. Maxwell
1. State of the issue
The more complex the abundance of new facts, the more variegated the variety of new ideas, the more imperative the call for a unifying worldview sounds.
G. Helmholtz
The question "What is life?" has always been one of the most fundamental mysteries of the universe, which have long worried humanity. At all times, people have tried to give a more or less adequate answer to it, corresponding to the current level of development of their views on nature. But even today, at the turn of the second and third millennia AD, a single, universally recognized opinion on this burning issue, oddly enough, still does not exist. Of course, numerous assumptions are made that appeal to certain secondary signs of life, and, naturally, certain arguments are given in their favor. However, it is precisely the noted secondary nature of the characteristics discussed that makes their very number as a whole so large that specialists are forced to conduct ongoing debates about the priority of any specific ones. And, unfortunately, there is no end in sight to this state of affairs, because until now no one has proposed a truly fundamental definition of life, from the standpoint of which all of its relatively particular manifestations could be explained. Meanwhile, it seems to us that it is not difficult to understand the essence of life. You just need to look at the named problem from the most general point of view, affecting the most fundamental aspects of the universe. It is an attempt to show this in practice that this article is devoted to.
First, however, it is necessary to at least briefly outline existing points of view. Due to the fact that we do not have the opportunity here to cover the entire discussion described above, we will limit ourselves to quoting as fully as possible the corresponding article from the “Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary”, where the indicated fundamental concept of “life” is defined in an effort to take into account all existing points of view as follows forcedly verbose: “Life is a form of existence of matter that naturally arises under certain conditions in the process of its development. Living objects differ from non-living ones in metabolism (an indispensable condition of life), irritability, the ability to reproduce, grow, actively regulate their composition and functions, to various forms of movement, adaptability to the environment, etc. ... Darwin in “The Origin of Species” defined the basic laws underlying the emergence of all forms of life: “These laws, in the broadest sense - Growth and reproduction, Heredity, Almost necessarily resulting from reproduction, Variability, depending on the direct or indirect action of life conditions and on exercise and non-exercise. The progression of reproduction is so high that it leads to the Struggle for life and its consequence - Natural selection...".
In general,” a summary conclusion is then made in the dictionary, “Darwin’s generalization remains valid to this day, and his basic laws of life are reduced to two, even more general ones. This is, first of all, the ability of living things to assimilate substances received from the outside, that is, to rearrange them, likening them to their own material structures, and due to this repeatedly reproduce them (reproduce). The ability for excessive self-reproduction underlies cell growth, the reproduction of cells and organisms and, consequently, the progression of reproduction (the main condition for natural selection), as well as the basis of heredity and hereditary variability. Reproduction of one's own kind - a fundamental property of living things - is now interpreted in terms of chemical concepts. Another feature of living things is the huge variety of properties acquired by the material structures of living objects. ...The implementation of diverse information about the properties of an organism is carried out through the synthesis, according to the genetic code, of various proteins, which, due to their diversity and structural plasticity, determine the development of various physical and chemical adaptations of living organisms. On this foundation, in the process of EVOLUTION, CONTROL SYSTEMS, unsurpassed in their perfection, arose.
Thus, - the final conclusion is further summarized, - life is characterized by HIGHLY ORDERED material structures that constitute a living system, generally capable of self-reproduction. Life is qualitatively superior to other forms of existence of matter in terms of the diversity and complexity of chemical components and the dynamics of transformations occurring in living things. Living systems are characterized by a much higher level of ORDER: structural and functional, in space and time. The structural compactness and energy efficiency of living things are the result of the highest order at the molecular level. Living organisms exchange ENERGY, MATTER and INFORMATION with the environment, i.e. they are OPEN SYSTEMS. At the same time, unlike inanimate systems, living things have the ability to ORDER, to create ORDER out of CHAOS (i.e., COUNTERACTING THE INCREASE OF ENTROPY). However, a decrease in entropy in living systems is possible ONLY DUE TO INCREASING ENTROPY IN THE ENVIRONMENT, so that IN GENERAL THE PROCESS OF INCREASING ENTROPY CONTINUES."
So, as we see, today, as we warned, many of its most diverse signs are cited as the defining features of life, among which several so-called basic ones then stand out. But they, as is easy to see, are also far from self-sufficient and therefore require, in addition to their main formulation, numerous special explanations, which directly indicates, let us emphasize this point again and again, the purely secondary nature of these signs, which are in fact only necessary particulars consequences of some initial, truly fundamental feature of living things, which, unfortunately, has not yet been fully understood. In other words, a simple and easily explained from the standpoint of ordinary human logic, a single criterion of life at the present moment, as already mentioned, in fact, is completely absent. But at the same time, as can be seen even from the quote just given, any sufficiently rigorous conversation about the essence of living things inevitably comes down in the end to universal physical concepts, and this fact, we now especially emphasize this circumstance, is not at all accidental. On the contrary, it is absolutely natural, which can easily be shown precisely through the aforementioned general logical reasoning.
After all, what exactly is the definition of this or that concept? Yes, only in establishing exactly how it differs from what is directly opposite to itself in its basic logical meaning. That is, in fact, two concepts are always defined at once, which are antipodes to each other. This means that the definition of life itself should, in the general case, consist in establishing the directly noted main difference between it and inertia, which precisely corresponds to the directly opposite concept of “not life,” i.e., life and inertia must be defined simultaneously. But to solve this basic problem, it is absolutely necessary, of course, a fundamentally general view of all nature as a whole, covering equally both life and inertia, which is only given by the aforementioned physics, which actually studies the most general laws of the universe (if you like - natural philosophy). Purely biological analysis, as should now be clear to everyone, in itself is simply not capable of helping in understanding the original essence of life, since it is too narrow to achieve such a fundamental goal, which is why it usually ends when discussing the noted global issue with a transition early or late necessarily to physical concepts. And ultimately, as is easy to see from the same article in the “Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary” cited above, to one, the most general of them – entropy! Which is not surprising: the difference between life and non-life, which, as everyone understands, is one of the most fundamental in nature, must necessarily be associated at its core with the most universal physical law, which is the so-called second law of thermodynamics personified by this basic concept.
This fact is, of course, well understood by physicists themselves, many of whom have devoted their work to the study of the most interesting problem under consideration. Including the most famous of them, such as, say, one of the main creators of quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize laureate Erwin Schrödinger, who back in the forties of the last century published a small but extremely famous book with a very indicative general title: “What is life "From a physicist's point of view." In it, he directly connected the main direction of the search for an answer to this question, which greatly worried him, with the study of consequences from the indicated cornerstone second law of thermodynamics, which he characterized as “the most important, most general and all-encompassing law” of nature. But, unfortunately, Schrödinger was never able to give on this basis the very sought-after definition of life, which also has its own quite understandable logical explanation: to solve this key problem, as we will see, in addition to the general physical one, some other purely specific ones are also necessary view approaches to the special problems considered in this case, developed so far mainly in special branches of science.
Trying to understand life is as daunting a task as trying to break the speed of light. Too low a level of awareness does not allow an ordinary person to plunge into the innermost secrets of the universe. Let's try to reflect on our lives together. So:
What is life?
Philosophical and religious concepts over the course of many centuries and millennia have tried to create a theory that could fully and completely answer the question about the essence of life, the essence of energy and matter. But it is unlikely that at least one of these concepts was close to understanding. Is it even possible to fit into the framework of brain activity all the diversity and greatness of the universe? What counts as life in the end? Maybe life is a single mechanism that appears before our eyes in the form of the universe? Or is life a human life? Both of these questions are interconnected and both of these questions are far from each other and exist in parallel worlds.
How can one try to answer such an existential question with a tiny percentage of information not only about the universe, but even about the physiological structure of man? But what about the fact that life has completely different forms and limitless variations and manifestations? Do we know absolutely all forms of life? Unfortunately, this is most likely not the case.
What is human life? Every person has the right to create and understand their own picture of the world. The picture of the world is a set of attitudes, concepts and human needs. Each picture of the world is unique. Every life has its own definition. That is why this article is more of an open reflection than a statement of one’s own position. We ask you not to judge strictly, and try to formulate your answer to the question about the essence of life.
We often ask ourselves what the meaning of life is. Does he exist? Is he in our personal lives? Of course, only one person can answer such a question. It's you. Your activities and the people with whom you go through life carry some kind of meaning that magically adds up to yours. As a result, we get a certain interweaving of meanings that leads... What does it lead to? That's what scares us. This is what upsets us. Humanity is not yet able to understand why it exists.
A wonderful scientific theory that offers a very realistic vision of the situation. Chaos theory. It says that life is just a random combination of chemical reactions and biological mutations. That's all. We are an accident, and maybe even a mistake in the history of the universe.
The concept of a good life requires special discussion. Here we need to take a little break from thinking about space and universal scales. What is a good life? What is she like? How many types of good life can you think of? Is one life equally good for different people? Experience and practice show that concepts of a good life can be both similar and diametrically opposed. What is the reason for this? The reason lies in the individuality of people. Each of us is a separate world with its own laws and rules. Some people see a good life in an expensive car and a prestigious job. For some, a good life is family and children. Someone comes to the understanding that life is good only at the controls of an airplane, or with a brush in hand, or on the stage of the best theaters in the world.
It is generally accepted that a good life is characterized by the presence of free funds, which can allow a person some freedom. Is it so? This statement contrasts with the statement of any of the religions. Any of the confessions is ready to answer the question of what spiritual life is. What is the advantage of religion? Religion manages to provide simple answers to complex questions. As it turns out, people don’t need anything else. "Why does thunder roar? Because Zeus the Thunderer is angry." Once a person understands this, he ceases to feel fear. This example is related to times long gone, but the principle of religion remains unchanged throughout its existence. Religion, God, deity, space and all other representatives save a person from the unknown. It's no secret that there is no worse situation when you don't know what to expect. Religion provides a simple answer to this question. Any of the faiths promises a heavenly life after death if you served its ideals. Thus religion performs a double take. She says to the man: “I will free you from fear, but if you live wrong, I will punish you!” Thus, a person finds himself in a situation of imaginary choice. He thinks that he has been freed from torment, when in fact he has doomed himself to a lifelong service to representatives of religious ideals.
We have been living on this planet for a very long time, but we have not yet understood what human life is. Although if you think about time on a universal scale, then humanity stayed in this world for approximately no more than a second. You should not try to understand the universal meaning of life. The first task of humanity is to understand itself. The first task of any person is to understand and accept himself. The structure of our nervous system and consciousness, which evolution has given us, dictates a completely special perception of the world around us. We look at this world based on our own filter systems. In order to get closer to understanding the world around you, you need to try to see yourself. The wonderful science of psychology serves precisely this purpose. Thanks to the knowledge gained through numerous authoritative studies, humanity is moving closer and closer to conscious existence. The second half of the twentieth century is a time when more and more people begin to question the adequacy and harmony of their lives. How do we live? What are we doing wrong? Where should we go?
We hope that you learned at least something from our article. This is our vision of what the philosophy of life is. Good luck to you, dear reader, on the path of realizing yourself and your own life.