Knowledge Tree
life
Facts (25)
Sources
The Hard Problem of Consciousness | Springer Nature Link link.springer.com 3 facts
claimOver the three centuries following the scientific revolution, natural scientists developed a physicalist picture of the universe by explaining phenomena through deterministic natural laws, which encompassed life, human origins, and the human mind.
perspectiveThe author of the source text disagrees with David Chalmers' requirement for logical necessity regarding the existence of compound holistic systems, arguing that such a requirement would preclude the existence of obviously existing observables like life, societies, or cultures.
claimThe existence of life does not logically follow from the natural laws of physics and chemistry, as life appears to invert entropy, yet most scientists maintain that life can be explained by natural law.
Moving Forward on the Problem of Consciousness - David Chalmers consc.net 3 facts
claimDavid Chalmers contrasts the conceivability of a world without consciousness with worlds without life, genes, or water, noting that the latter are not remotely conceivable.
claimDavid Chalmers contends that in cases like water or life, low-level facts imply high-level facts without requiring primitive identity statements, whereas consciousness requires a primitive identity of a different kind.
claimDavid Chalmers argues that analogies comparing consciousness to water or life are irrelevant because they reverse the direction of explanation, which in reductive explanation must proceed from micro to macro.
Life, Intelligence, and Consciousness: A Functional Perspective longnow.org Aug 27, 2025 3 facts
claimLife is inherently purposive, intelligent, and cooperative.
claimJohn von Neumann identified self-construction—including growth, healing, maintenance, and reproduction—as the most basic function of life.
perspectiveLife is inherently computational, meaning biological processes are information processes, a perspective that remains underappreciated in both biology and computer science.
Critique of Panpsychism: Philosophical Coherence and Scientific ... thequran.love May 7, 2025 2 facts
claimGalen Strawson argues that the analogy between life and consciousness is flawed because life, when defined in biological terms, is fully explainable by physics and chemistry as complicated order, whereas consciousness is experiential and not captured by structure alone.
quoteLife (without consciousness) reduces [to physics]; experience doesn’t.
Complexity and the Evolution of Consciousness | Biological Theory link.springer.com Sep 14, 2022 2 facts
referenceWalter Veit and Heather Browning authored the forthcoming paper 'Life, mind, agency: why Markov blankets fail the test of evolution', to be published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
referenceGodfrey-Smith's (1996a) environmental complexity thesis attempted to reconcile earlier ideas from John Dewey and Herbert Spencer regarding the continuity between life and mind within the modern framework of evolutionary theory, positing the mind as a natural consequence of the evolution of biological complexity.
Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016 Edition) plato.stanford.edu Aug 19, 2003 1 fact
accountUntil the early twentieth century, it was common to believe that biological phenomena, or 'life,' required property dualism involving an irreducible 'vital force'.
The cross-cultural study of mind and behaviour: a word of caution link.springer.com Apr 8, 2022 1 fact
quoteOjalehto et al. (2020: 17) state: 'folkcommunication provides a broad framework for conceptualizing agency as a capacity to relate with others and the environment, linked to inferences about life and vitality.'
Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu Jun 18, 2004 1 fact
claimSince the demise of vitalism, 'life' is not considered a distinct entity or additional component of reality, but rather a term applied to living things, organisms, states, properties, and evolutionary lineages.
Consciousness and Cognitive Sciences journal-psychoanalysis.eu 1 fact
referenceHumberto Maturana and J.P. Dupuy edited 'Understanding Origin: Scientific Ideas on the Origin of Life, Mind, and Society', based on the Stanford University International Symposium held in 1992.
Something Rich and Strange: Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941 ... smuralis.wordpress.com Apr 16, 2012 1 fact
claimSri Aurobindo envisioned that the involuted Spirit must progress through Matter, Life, and Mind into higher planes including Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition, and Overmind, ultimately uniting with the Supermind to achieve an all-transforming unity and integrity.
Panpsychism - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
claimPaul Carus defined "panbiotism" as the belief that "everything is fraught with life; it contains life; it has the ability to live".
Quantum Theory of Consciousness - Scirp.org. scirp.org 1 fact
claimThe hesitation in applying quantum physics to the study of consciousness or life stems from a lack of understanding regarding the metaphysical meaning of quantum physics.
Quantum Models of Consciousness from a Quantum Information ... arxiv.org Dec 20, 2024 1 fact
referenceR. Swenson authored the paper 'A grand unified theory for the unification of physics, life, information and cognition (mind),' published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, volume 381, in 2023.
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 1 fact
claimDavid Chalmers argues that previous scientific reductive explanations only applied to functional or structural phenomena, such as diseases (defined by the function of making people sick) or life (defined by functions like metabolism and reproduction).
Are there any main theories on the evolution of consciousness? reddit.com May 29, 2021 1 fact
claimConsciousness is an emergent property of life.
Unknown source 1 fact
claimQuantum consciousness theory is proposed as a potential solution to the mind-body problem, as well as an explanation for the nature of life and the nature of time.
Consciousness as the foundation: New theory addresses nature of ... phys.org Nov 25, 2025 1 fact
referenceMaria Strømme's theoretical framework posits that consciousness is not a byproduct of brain activity, but rather a fundamental field underlying all experience, including matter, space, time, and life itself.