[Cz-biology] Requesting consideration of approvalof[[Life/Draft]]to replace [[Life]]

Sun Jan 20 20:59:09 CST 2008

Speaking as a philosopher, I think that, when writing an introduction to a
topic titled "life"--something very abstract, after all--it is at least
appropriate (if not required) that it have the philosophy of the topic.  The
same could be said for fundamental concepts in many fields: matter, human
beings, the mind and human behavior, the state, etc.  The fact that the
article is managed by biologists should not prejudice its approach, so that
(for that reason) it focuses only on biological matters; perhaps the "life"
article should also be assigned to the Philosophy Workgroup, after all.
Still, I'm no philosopher of biology, and I don't know what should impinge
on the decision.  My only point is that the article is about the topic,
life, not merely biologists' approach to the topic.  Put that in your pipe
and smoke it--and I'll be quiet now.

--Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: cz-biology-bounces at mail.citizendium.org
[mailto:cz-biology-bounces at mail.citizendium.org] On Behalf Of David Goodman
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 8:49 PM
To: Biology Workgroup List
Subject: Re: [Cz-biology] Requesting consideration of
approvalof[[Life/Draft]]to replace [[Life]]

Philosophy of biology to me is less important than actual biology, but then
I'm a biologist not a philosopher. What life ultimately is and how  life is
exactly  defined cannot be intelligently discussed until you know what its
physical structure consists of.  I'd move all the philosophy to a separate
article as subsidiary. The main article on the subject should be about life
as biology.  

This is too important an article to proceed without some time for thought
about it. 

On Jan 20, 2008 3:59 PM, John Moffett <john at factinista.org
<mailto:john at factinista.org> > wrote:

Hello All,

Yes, the article is much improved, and should replace the old one. Changes
and additions can be made later. By philosophy of biology I meant it
discussed ideas about what life is and how it is defined more than it
discusses the basics of how life works (membranes, metabolism, eukaryotes
vs. prokaryotes, ribosomes and the relation between genes and proteins, gene
regulation, evolution, etc).

John M.

  _____  

From: cz-biology-bounces at voltaire.citizendium.org
[mailto:cz-biology-bounces at voltaire.citizendium.org] On Behalf Of Anthony
Sebastian

Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 2:22 PM 

To: 'Biology Workgroup List'
Subject: Re: [Cz-biology] Requesting consideration of approval
of[[Life/Draft]]to replace [[Life]]

Workgroup:

I agree with John that we need to include the commonalities of metabolism
and information processing in the article.  But that will take some time to
get right and succinct - universality of biochemistry.  We can do that in
the next draft.

I just think we have a much improved draft now compared with the approved
version, and should make the substitution now to show a better version.

I disagree the article discusses the philosophy of biology.  It tries to
discuss the shared characteristics of all living things, as much as we know
it today.

Thanks.

Anthony.Sebastian

From: cz-biology-bounces at mail.citizendium.org
[mailto:cz-biology-bounces at mail.citizendium.org] On Behalf Of John Moffett
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 5:59 AM
To: 'Biology Workgroup List'
Subject: Re: [Cz-biology] Requesting consideration of approval of
[[Life/Draft]]to replace [[Life]]

Hello All,

It will take some time to go through all that to look for problems or
omissions. In general, it looks good, but from a biologist's perspective it
seems to discuss the philosophy of biology more than the substance of it.
For example, any discussion of life that leaves out ribosomes, and the
DNA-RNA-protein expression system is not really getting to the meat of the
subject of how life works.

John

  _____  

From: cz-biology-bounces at voltaire.citizendium.org
[mailto:cz-biology-bounces at voltaire.citizendium.org] On Behalf Of Anthony
Sebastian
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 8:24 PM
To: cz-biology at voltaire.citizendium.org
Subject: [Cz-biology] Requesting consideration of approval of
[[Life/Draft]]to replace [[Life]]

Biology Workgroup:

Please review the draft version of the approved article, [[Life]], at
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Life/Draft.  Please consider it for approval
to replace the approved version, as it has been considerably reworked since
its April '07 approval, and may be an improvement over what we have now as
the approved version.

Thank you.

Anthony.Sebastian

.

-------------------------

Anthony Sebastian, MD

Professor of Medicine

University of California San Francisco

Postal Mail Address:

Anthony Sebastian, MD

40 Crags Court

San Francisco, CA 94131

Anthony_Sebastian at msn.com [preferred email address]

415-648-0834 [tel]; 415-358-5953 [fax]

Faculty Affiliations:

Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology

Clinical and Translational Science

   Institute (CTSI)

   --CTSI Strategic Opportunities

     Support Center

University of California San Francisco

sebastia at gcrc.ucsf.edu

Faculty Webpage:

http://medicine.ucsf.edu/nephrology/faculty/anthony_sebastian.html 

View/Download Selected Publications:

http://groups.msn.com/Anthony-Sebastian

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