2017-09-29, 04:08 PM
Here's philosopher Alvin Noe's view on whether or not we could ever figure out how life began:
"Darwinism is silent on the question of life's first beginnings, however. This is not a hole or an omission; it represents no unfulfilled promise. The theory of evolution is not a theory of that.
How did life first happen? How did it begin? We don't know. As Peter Godfrey Smith puts it, in his elegant review of Thomas Nagel's recent book: "We still know very little about how life began, and it is hard to assess whether this problem will eventually yield to 'normal science' or whether a more dramatic innovation is needed."
That's not the situation when it comes to understanding the origin and variety of species, extinction events and the like. There are lots of unanswered questions, of course. For instance, we are still filling in the details in our account of the great exodus from Africa that led to our population of the greater planet. But we do know that we don't need dramatic innovation to move forward. "Normal science" will do the work.
Godfrey Smith's point, and I agree, is that we don't have this same confidence when it comes to an understanding of life's beginnings. This is probably not, I would say, due to the fact that the relevant events happened a long time ago. Our problem isn't merely historical in nature, that is. If that were all that was at stake, then we might expect that, now at least, we would be able to make life in a test tube. But we can't do that. We don't know how."
From: http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02...not-really
"Darwinism is silent on the question of life's first beginnings, however. This is not a hole or an omission; it represents no unfulfilled promise. The theory of evolution is not a theory of that.
How did life first happen? How did it begin? We don't know. As Peter Godfrey Smith puts it, in his elegant review of Thomas Nagel's recent book: "We still know very little about how life began, and it is hard to assess whether this problem will eventually yield to 'normal science' or whether a more dramatic innovation is needed."
That's not the situation when it comes to understanding the origin and variety of species, extinction events and the like. There are lots of unanswered questions, of course. For instance, we are still filling in the details in our account of the great exodus from Africa that led to our population of the greater planet. But we do know that we don't need dramatic innovation to move forward. "Normal science" will do the work.
Godfrey Smith's point, and I agree, is that we don't have this same confidence when it comes to an understanding of life's beginnings. This is probably not, I would say, due to the fact that the relevant events happened a long time ago. Our problem isn't merely historical in nature, that is. If that were all that was at stake, then we might expect that, now at least, we would be able to make life in a test tube. But we can't do that. We don't know how."
From: http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02...not-really