What Is the Folk Concept of Life

Bibliographic Data

ID21293530
AuthorsClaus Beisbart (0000-0003-2731-6200, University of Bern), Kara Reuter (0000-0003-2404-1619, University of Zurich), Kevin Reuter (University of Zurich)
Year2023
Volume101
Issue2
Pages486-507
Publication date2023-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralasian Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-8402 • E-ISSN: 1470-6828
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00048402.2021.1995449
OpenAlexW3217202678
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited38

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

Biology · Empirical research · Epistemology · Everyday life · Feature (linguistics) · Linguistics · Natural (archaeology) · Political science · Relevance (law) · Reproduction · Salient · Scrutiny · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Ecology · Embodied and Extended Cognition · History · Law · Origins and Evolution of Life · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology

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