title: Is it useful to have a clear-cut definition of life? On the use of fuzzy logic in prebiotic chemistry.
abstract: Many scientists, including one of the authors of the present paper, have devoted time to try to find a definition for life (Bersini and Reisse 2007). It is clear that a consensus will never be reached but, more importantly, it seems that the issue itself could be without major interest. It is indeed impossible to define a "natural" frontier between non-living and living systems and therefore also impossible to define dichotomic criteria which could be used in order to classify systems in one of these two classes (living or non-living). Fuzzy logic provides a natural way to deal with problems where class membership lacks sharply defined criteria. It also offers the possibility to avoid losing time with unnecessary controversies such as deciding whether a virus is, or is not, a living system.
authors.affiliation: Ingénierie Moléculaire et Biomoléculaire, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, 50 av. F.D. Roosevelt, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bruylants
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bartik
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reisse
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D019369:Life; D000069497:Origin of Life