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What is 'life'? Are we really 'alive'?

OpinionsMatter March 25, 2019 at 18:21 2475 views 3 comments
Some people think that it's possible for 'life' to be just a chemical chain reaction. Is this all we really are? Just another reaction, another pitiful link in the 'chain of life'? When we die, is that just the end of it all? We just come to an end, where we no longer do or think or exist? Life would seem to have no meaning, almost as if we are all here by accident, almost as if we weren't supposed to exist. I here the 'you only live once' line fairly often, but what does it mean, if we aren't really alive? Or are we, because I'm totally confused as to what having 'life' really is. Is it because my heart is beating? Or that because my chemical reactions have not finished their course? Maybe it's because life has been stereo typed. We call plants alive but they don't have life. Or why do we say that our phones have died, because they had life too? Somebody please give me some thought on this.

Comments (3)

Valentinus March 25, 2019 at 22:11 #268811
Maybe it is a category mistake to say we "have" a life. No deed to the property has been issued.
The light and darkness are mine, if I bring them in. Desire fills my mouth before I can speak.
Before I can interrogate this life, I will need to restrain it and get it into a chair.
But I cannot. My incapacity is oddly joined with its disinterest in my designs.
SethRy March 26, 2019 at 10:24 #268988
We call plants alive but they don't have life.
Reply to OpinionsMatter

Plants are alive as they fit into biological criteria of living, which as follows;


  • Responsiveness to the environment.
  • The ability to grow
  • Procreation.
  • Respire.
  • Excrete.
  • Have a unique set of cells.
  • Move (Plants follow patterns of light energy).


To answer your question, several philosophers have a different perspective towards the essence of life. To begin, it should follow through by attributes of a person — and yes, you definitely are a living thing. What makes you, you though, is your attributes. Wherein attributes can either be: Accidental, or Essential. Accidental attributes, is like a handle of a knife, that can be wooden or rubber. An essential attribute, is what makes a knife, a knife, is it's blade — where without it, it would not be a knife.

For a human being, is where it gets tricky. Interestingly, numerous Philosophers from the roots of early existentialism and just dark nihilism, have paradoxical concepts of them. Some believed that life is just meaningless, wherein it's meaninglessness, actually makes the meaning. For an existentialist's view, they believe that it is up to you to develop that essence and thus, giving meaning to a meaningless life.

whollyrolling April 09, 2019 at 02:20 #274541
Life is a duration of time within which a self-replicating container of energized tissue can support "microorganisms", as far as I can tell.