Preface / xi
Acknowledgments / xvii
Introduction. What Is It That Makes an Object Alive? / 3
Chapter 1. Life Forces and Vital Substances: The Path from Vitalism to Materialism / 12
Chapter 2. The Material Causes of Life: The Modern Perspective / 25
Chapter 3. Coming into Being: The Origin of Aliveness / 30
Chapter 4. A More Refined Understanding: A Modern View of What Is Necessary for Life / 36
Chapter 5. A Sufficient Property of Life: A Search for the Properties That Attest to Our Being Alive / 50
Chapter 6. Dr. Bernard’s Adaptations: The Internal Adaptations of Life and Their Critical Role in Understanding Life’s Nature / 68
Chapter 7. The Physical World Intrudes: How the Physical World Shapes Our Adaptive Properties and Us / 92
Chapter 8. Adaptations as Life: Adaptations as the Sufficient, Lifegiving Properties / 102
Chapter 9. Spandrels and Other Irrelevancies: Are There Sufficient Properties of Life That Are Not Adaptations? / 120
Chapter 10. Life as Complexity: The Nature of Biological Complexity / 131
Chapter 11. Harmony: The Concordance of Life and Its Science / 155
Conclusion. Is There Life beyond the Genome? / 173
Reflection. The Religious Allusions of Life beyond Molecules and Genes / 181
Notes and Suggested Reading / 193
Index / 215