What Is the Folk Concept of Life?

被引：4

作者：

Beisbart, Claus ^{[1
]}

Reuter, Kevin ^{[2
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Bern, Bern, Switzerland

[2] Univ Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

来源：

AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY | 2023年 / 101卷 / 02期

基金：

瑞士国家科学基金会;

关键词：

experimental philosophy; living being; biology; cells; natural kind; salient vs; universal features; NATURAL KINDS; CENTRALITY; SCIENCE;

D O I：

10.1080/00048402.2021.1995449

中图分类号：

B [哲学、宗教];

学科分类号：

01 ; 0101 ;

摘要：

This paper details the content and structure of the folk concept of life, and discusses its relevance for scientific research on life. In four empirical studies, we investigate which features of life are considered salient, universal, central, and necessary. Functionings, such as nutrition and reproduction, but not material composition, turn out to be salient features commonly associated with living beings (Study 1). By contrast, being made of cells is considered a universal feature of living species (Study 2), a central aspect of life (Study 3), and our best candidate for being necessary for life (Study 4). These results are best explained by the hypothesis that people take life to be a natural kind subject to scientific scrutiny.

引用

页码：486 / 507

页数：22

共 47 条

[1] Why are different features central for natural kinds and artifacts?: the role of causal status in determining feature centrality [J].