Why I stopped worrying about the definition of life... and why you should as well

In several disciplines within science-evolutionary biology, molecular biology, astrobiology, synthetic biology, artificial life-and outside science-primarily ethics-efforts to define life have recently multiplied. However, no consensus has emerged. In this article, I argue that this is no accident. I propose a dilemma showing that the project of defining life is either impossible or pointless. The notion of life at stake in this project is either the folk concept of life or a scientific concept. In the former case, empirical evidence shows that life cannot be defined. In the latter case, I argue that, although defining life may be possible, it is pointless. I conclude that scientists, philosophers, and ethicists should discard the project of defining life. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.