Ch. 1. All the colors of a rainbow in a worm or: what is life? / Reinhard Eichelbeck -- ch. 2. Life - a problem inherent in the research context / Franz-Theo Gottwald -- ch. 3. Truth and knowledge / Wolfram Schommers -- ch. 4. The formative powers of developing organisms / Lev V. Beloussov -- ch. 5. Electromagnetic, symbiotic and informational interactions in the kingdom of organisms / Gunter M. Rothe -- ch. 6. Dead molecules and the live organism / Roeland Van Wijk -- ch. 7. Inanimate and animate matter: orderings of immaterial connectedness - the physical basis of life / Hans-Peter Dürr -- ch. 8. Communication - basis of life / Lebrecht von Klitzing -- ch. 9. Can biological effects emerge from inorganic nano-systems? / Michael Rieth and Wolfram Schommers -- ch. 10. Substantial and non-substantial structure in living systems / Jiin-Ju Chang (Jinzhu Zhang) -- ch. 11. On the essence of life - a physical but nonreductionistic examination / Hans-Jürgen Fischbeck -- ch. 12. Coherent excitations in living biosystems and their implications: a qualitative overview / G.J. Hyland -- ch. 13. Biophotonics - a powerful tool for investigating and understanding life / Fritz-Albert Popp -- ch. 14. Biophoton and the quantum vision of life / R.P. Bajpai -- ch. 15. Quantum mechanics, computability theory and life / John Swain -- ch. 16. Bose-Einstein condensation of photons, does it play a vital role in the understanding of life? / Eberhard Müller

The book of Erwin Schrödinger about life evokes a variety of basic questions concerning the understanding of life in terms of modern physics rather than biochemistry. Problems of organization and regulation of biological systems cannot be understood by revealing only the chemical processes of the living state. A group of reputable physicists — among them the followers of Heisenberg and Fröhlich — and biologists came to this same conclusion through several workshops on this topic. This book contains their contributions, written from different viewpoints of theoretical physics and modern biology. These articles are valuable not only for understanding life, but also for creating new and non-invasive diagnostic and therapeutic tools in medicine; they also contribute importantly to a deeper understanding of evolutionary processes, including the development of consciousness.

Introduces a broad range of scientific and philosophical issues about life through the original historical and contemporary sources.

A short and accessible introduction to philosophy of science for students and researchers across the life sciences.

This book makes four bold claims: 1) life is an ultimate datum, open to philosophical analysis and irreducible to physical reality; hence all materialist-reductionist explanations - most current theories - of life are false. 2) All life presupposes soul (entelechy) without which a being would at best fake life. 3) The concept of life is analogous and the most direct access to life in its irreducibility is gained through consciousness; 4) All life possesses an objective and intrinsic value that needs to be respected, human life possesses beyond this an inviolable dignity. Life and personal life are pure perfections, it being absolutely better to possess (personal) life than not to possess it. Chapter 1: the metaphysical essence and the many meanings of 'life,' as well as its 'transcendental' character. Chapter 2: the irreducibility of biological life, its amazing empirical and philosophically intelligible essential features, and the ways of knowing them. Chapter 3: the immediate evidence and indubitable givenness of mental, conscious life as well as questions of (brain-) death and immortality. Chapter 4: the inviolable objective dignity of personal life and its self-transcendence; a new theory of the fourfold source of human dignity and rights. Chapter 5 (in dialogue-form): methods and results of philosophy versus those of empirical life-sciences.

How does science work? Does it tell us what the world is “really” like? What makes it different from other ways of understanding the universe? In Theory and Reality, Peter Godfrey-Smith addresses these questions by taking the reader on a grand tour of more than a hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science. Examples and asides engage the beginning student, a glossary of terms explains key concepts, and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter. Like no other text in this field, Theory and Reality combines a survey of recent history of the philosophy of science with current key debates that any beginning scholar or critical reader can follow. The second edition is thoroughly updated and expanded by the author with a new chapter on truth, simplicity, and models in science.

Few can imagine a world without telephones or televisions; many depend on computers and the Internet as part of daily life. Without scientific theory, these developments would not have been possible. In this exceptionally clear and engaging introduction to philosophy of science, James Ladyman explores the philosophical questions that arise when we reflect on the nature of the scientific method and the knowledge it produces. He discusses whether fundamental philosophical questions about knowledge and reality might be answered by science, and considers in detail the debate between realists and antirealists about the extent of scientific knowledge. Along the way, central topics in philosophy of science, such as the demarcation of science from non-science, induction, confirmation and falsification, the relationship between theory and observation and relativism are all addressed. Important and complex current debates over underdetermination, inference to the best explaination and the implications of radical theory change are clarified and clearly explained for those new to the subject.