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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'
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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

creating life « Previous | |Next »
August 24, 2006

The definition of life is a deeply contested one in biophilosophy as the break with Aristotle's conception of reproduction and growth as phrases of one single process of development is severed, with biology shifting to a purely geneticist account of evolution. Life itself now entails a continual creation of unpredictable novelty (genetic differentiation) as opposed to those like Daniel Dennett who see in a new form or quality only a rearrangement of the old and nothing absolutely new. In biophilosophy a philosophy of life is exemplified, in different ways, in Bergson’s elan vital, Nietzsche’s will to power and Deleuze’s virtuality.

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Petty

Philip Ball in Prospect says that:

Two years ago American scientists created life. Or did they? It all depends on what you mean by life. More specifically, it depends on whether you are prepared to regard viruses as living entities. Viruses have genes, and they replicate, mutate and evolve, all of which sounds lifelike enough. And in August 2002, a team at the State University of New York (SUNY) announced that it had made a virus from scratch, by chemistry alone.What this meant was that, for the first time since life began over 3.5bn years ago, a living organism had been created with genetic material that was not inherited from a progenitor.

As Ball points out the SUNY researchers choose to award the honour of being the first synthetic organism to a virus that scientists have spent decades trying to eradicate, a cause of human disability and death: polio.

The virus has come into the centre of both biophilosophy and our virus as metaphor narratives--- in the latter the virus sttnds for the devastation of the human population and so throw into reverse the endless forward motion that constitutes life on this planet.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 11:44 PM | | Comments (0)
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