title: Some conceptual issues in the transition from chemistry to biology.
abstract: The transition from chemistry to biology is an extremely complex issue because of the huge phenomenological differences between the two domains and because this transition has many different aspects and dimensions. In this paper, I will try to analyze how chemical systems have developed a cohesive, self-maintaining and functionally differentiated system that recruits its organization to stay far from equilibrium. This organization cannot exist but in an individualized form, and yet, it unfolds both a diachronic-historical and a synchronic collective dimension. I will argue that, far from being a problem, these different dimensions of the phenomenon of life, appear as a consequence of the nature of this individualized organization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, IAS-Research Centre for Life, Mind and Society, University of the Basque Country, Avenida de Tolosa 70, 20018, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. alvaro.moreno@ehu.es.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2612-8403
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moreno
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D001695:Biology; D002621:Chemistry; D000069497:Origin of Life
keywords: Far-from-equilibrium self-maintaining organization; Functional diversity; Individualization; Synchronic collective organization