"Don't worry Burgy, you're not a vitalist. Not as nearly as I can
tell anyway :). I believe it was Arthur Peacocke who coined the
term "nothingbutism" to refer to the type of reductionism apparently
espoused by Kevin."
And Arthur is a philosopher, if I remember correctly. I have a faint
memory of reading that somewhere, perhaps a decade ago.
I just looked up the definition of "vitalist" in my unabridged (Webster's
3rd); I seem to come close to fitting the definition, particularly the
second. But I'm really not sure.
I suspect that if someone ever develops real "life in a test tube," I'd
have to reject the position. Until then, I still am on the fence.
-------------------
Brian went on to write:
"I must admit that I was somewhat taken aback by Kevin's statement
that the Miller Urey experiment was an example of abiogenesis.
This is due to the fact that I had always seen the term used as
Burgy is using it. But, in the past, I've always tried to follow
Pascal when he said that he would not complain about a word as
long as he knows what you mean by it. ... After some reflection, I
believe Kevin's definition may have its points for some situations.
Nevertheless its almost
bound to lead to confusion."
I thought it was Bacon who made that point. Perhaps both of them did.
------------------------------------
Brian continues:
"In any event, Burgy makes a good point. In defining abiogenesis
as Kevin has one divorces abiogenesis from necessarily having
anything to do with the origin of life on earth. Let me try
to rephrase Burgy's point as follows. To avoid confusion we'll
try not to use the same word with different meanings in the
same argument. So we'll define abiogenesis a la Kevin and then
refer to the specific historical process which led to the origin
of life on earth as "the origin of life on earth". Now, it
seems clear enough to me that "the origin of life on earth" will
have involved several abiogenetic processes and events. Burgy's
point is that not all abiogenetic processes and events necessarily
have anything to do with "the origin of life on earth". For
example, if "the origin of life on earth" occurred at a deep
sea hydrothermal vent, then the abiogenetic production of amino
acids by passing electrical discharges through a reducing
atmosphere probably had nothing to do with "the origin of life on
earth". "
As often happens, Brian, you have restated my case more clearly than I
did!
Thank you.
Burgy
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