title: Origin of life and definition of life, from Buffon to Oparin.
abstract: Many theories on origin of life at the end of the XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth, generally use conceptions of life instead of explicit definitions of life. This paper presents ideas on the origin of life as studied by Buffon (1707-1788), Lamarck (1744-1829), Darwin (1809-1882), Huxley (1825-1895), Oparin (1894-1980) and Haldane (1892-1964). We show that their conceptions on the evolution of matter and life reveal their conceptions of life rather than their definitions of life.
authors.affiliation: Centre François Viète d'histoire des sciences et des techniques (EA 1161), Faculté des sciences et des techniques de Nantes, BP 92 208, 44322, Nantes CEDEX 3, France. stephane.tirard@univ-nantes.fr
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tirard
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D019369:Life; D000069497:Origin of Life