Philosophical Aspects of Astrobiology Revisited

Given the idea that Life as we know it is nothing but a special form of a generically underlying dynamical structure within the physical Universe, we try to introduce a concept of Life that is not only derived from first principles of fundamental physics, but also metaphysically based on philosophic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhilosophies (Basel) Vol. 6; no. 3; p. 55
Main Author Zimmermann, Rainer E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2021
Subjects
Astrobiology
dynamical systems
emergence of space and time
Logic
metaphysics
Ontology
Physics
Spacetime
twistor theory
Universe
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Summary:Given the idea that Life as we know it is nothing but a special form of a generically underlying dynamical structure within the physical Universe, we try to introduce a concept of Life that is not only derived from first principles of fundamental physics, but also metaphysically based on philosophical assumptions about the foundations of the world. After clarifying the terminology somewhat, especially with a view to differentiating reality from modality, we give an example for a mathematical representation of what the substance of reality (in the traditional sense of metaphysics) could actually mean today, discussing twistor theory as an example. We then concentrate on the points of structural emergence by discussing the emergence of dynamical systems and of Life as we know it, respectively. Some further consequences as they relate to meaning are discussed in the end.
ISSN:2409-9287
2409-9287
DOI:10.3390/philosophies6030055