Life is simply the reification of the process of living.
Interpretation
Life is a manifestation of the ongoing process of living.
This quote by Ernst Mayr suggests that life is not merely a static state or condition, but rather a reflection of the continuous and dynamic process of living itself. It emphasizes that our experiences, actions, and choices shape the essence of what it means to be alive, highlighting the importance of ongoing engagement with the world around us.
In practice
In a discussion about the meaning of life during a philosophy class.
The most consequential change in man's view of the world, of living nature and of himself came with the introduction, over a period of some 100 years beginning only in the 18th century, of the idea of change itself, of change over periods of time: in a word, of evolution.
Evolution, thus, is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection. No longer is a fixed object transformed, as in transformational evolution, but an entirely new start is, so to speak, made in every generation.
There are a number of attributes of species and populations that are not of any particular selective advantage to any single individual in a population but that are of great advantage to the population as a whole.
Wherever we look at the living biota … discontinuities are overwhelmingly frequent…The discontinuities are even more striking in the fossil record. New species usually appear in the fossil record suddenly, not connected with their ancestors by a series of intermediates.
Evolution ... is opportunistic, hence unpredictable.
There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate - the genetic and neural fate - of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.
Ambition is a gilded misery, a secret poison, a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the original of vices, the moth of holiness, the blinder of hearts, turning medicines into maladies, and remedies into diseases.
Commending the victims to almighty God's mercy, I implore his strength upon all involved in rescue efforts and in caring for the survivors.
Liberty is a word which, according as it is used, comprehends the most good and the most evil of any in the world.
When at eve, at the bounding of the landscape, the heavens appear to recline so slowly on the earth, imagination pictures beyond the horizon an asylum of hope, - a native land of love; and nature seems silently to repeat that man is immortal.
Violence is fomented by the imposition of singular and belligerent identities on gullible people, championed by proficient artisans of terror.
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