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Science cannot provide definitions, like of what consititutes life.
by akvadrako 5y ago
Science cannot provide definitions, like of what consititutes life.
- rayiner 5y agoSo when scientists talk about evidence of life on Mars, or the possibility of life on other planets, they don’t have a scientific definition for that?
- akvadrako 5y agoDefinitions are just assumptions and can differ for each paper. They come from convention or philosophy, not science itself.
- akerl_ 5y ago“Definitions are just assumptions” is pretty tautologically false. Science at its core aims to define things: hypotheses are proposed and proven/disproven in search of pinning down clearly defined rules and patterns. Is gravity just an assumption that differs for each of us?
- akvadrako 5y agoGravity as you mean it isn't a definition, it's a theory. If you named it vticarg instead and defined the word "gravity" as loud noises, that would be fine scientifically. Indeed you will find "gravity" defined different ways in different papers. Sometimes it's Newtonian, sometimes relativity, sometimes MOND.
- tptacek 5y agoYou pounced on their use of the word "life", but of course the question here is "human life", not "life" in general, and that's a term that does not simply mean live human cells, and does not have a straightforward scientific definition the way "life" does (at least, not when used in the sense it's used in the abortion debate).
- akvadrako 5y agoBut life doesn't have a straightforward definion either. Are viruses alive? What about robots? Or cities? Or earth? It's a philosophical question and not something that can be decided by experiment.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]