A question without answers?

Abstract

On Thursday, August 21, 1862, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt registered in their Journal a short entry on the nature of life: ‘‘Qu’est-ce que la vie? L’usufruit d’une agregation de molecules’’—What is life? The usufruct of an aggregation of molecules. Although the extraordinary chronicles of the social and cultural life of the Second French Empire written by the Goncourt brothers includes names of their most distinguished contemporaries, the writers, artists, politicians and socialites they befriended outnumber by far the scientists. It is almost certain that they were never close to Felix Dujardin, a distinguished microbiologist and member of the French Academy of Sciences. In 1835, Dujardin had started crushing ciliates under the microscope and observed that the tiny cells exuded a jellylike substance, which he described as a ‘‘gelee vivante’’ and was eventually named ‘‘protoplasm’’ by Johann E. Purkinje and Hugo von Mohl. The small note written by the Goncourts in their journal is an indication of the pace at which biochemistry and cell biology were transforming life sciences, spilling new concepts beyond the boundaries of academia and into the literary salons. The search for the nature and origin of life are no modest intellectual undertakings. By assembling this anthology, Mark Bedau and Carol Cleland offer the possibility of having in a single volume different and even opposing views on these issues. Both are philosophers of science that have devoted much time to biological problems and are convinced that ‘‘it is difficult to draw a bright red line separating scientific and philosophical questions about life.’’ Many would agree with their conclusion. Professors Bedau and Cleland have divided their compilation into four major sections that correspond to what they believe are the central topics in which both philosophy and science intersect when addressing the nature of life: ‘‘the classical discussions of life, the origin and extent of natural life, artificial life and