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An Equation

Philosophy Comment [19]

Expanding on my earlier thoughts on the use of humans for the benefit of others:

Consider a situation involving the loss or sacrifice of one life for the sake of many others. The cure for cancer lies within one innocent human being and cannot be extracted without their death…is the killing justified?

Human Resources

Philosophy Comment [3]

For those students who have not found the same “university” learning experience as they had envisioned, I would recommend that you visit every professor’s office hours regularly. It is through these office hours and the resulting connections that I have been able to experience the only real learning I’ve ever done.

Nature State

Philosophy Right?

A major premise in Book I of Aristotle’s Politics is that the state is a creation of nature. The combination of man’s unique ability of speech as well as his sense of good and evil is what creates the orders and groupings that eventually produce a state.

However, it seems to me that speech (and communication in general) is the only source of a state and stands above all other sciences. Although it is possible for a fairly advanced civilization such as the Incas to grow without evidence of a written language, it is the combination of the communication allowed through speech and the permanence of written language that lets a collection of families grow into a flourishing state.

The Origin of Life

Philosophy Comment [7]

My previous article did little to describe the early earth that might have made “life” possible, so I will try to describe the situation a little better so that we have a better chance of describing the characteristics of life.

The accepted theory is based on a preparatory chemical evolution where small compounds with reduced carbon atoms were formed. These compounds reacted with the then volatile environment (catalyzed by clay) to form larger amino acids, sugars, and nitrogenous bases to create a prebiotic chemical “soup”. Eventually, large polymers of these compounds created the proteins and complex sugars we are familiar with today.

Life became possible when one of these large, complex molecules (most likely RNA) gained the ability to make a copy of itself. Thus, chemical evolution gave way to biological evolution.

Replication is certainly an important aspect of life because it creates two vital characteristics: selection (survival of the fittest) and ego, but is it what creates life?

What is life?

Philosophy Comment [11]

What are the most important characteristics that we use to define whether something is living and why? It is a difficult border to set because there will always be an exception, but I believe it is an important distinction because once defined (assuming it is possible) it creates a simplifying division to those entities upon which we can apply certain emotions or qualities – plus, I find it interesting.

Here are some conventional characteristics of life to get us started:

• Growth – stages of development
• Metabolism – consuming, creating, transforming and storing energy
• Motion – internal or external
• Reproduction – ability to create similar, separate entities
• Response – detect and respond to environmental stimuli

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