Re: MD What is a living being?

From: Dan Glover (daneglover@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue May 06 2003 - 17:29:20 BST

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    Hello everyone

    >From: Richard Loggins <brloggins@yahoo.com>
    >Reply-To: moq_discuss@moq.org
    >To: moq_discuss@moq.org
    >Subject: Re: MD What is a living being?
    >Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 06:41:09 -0700 (PDT)
    >
    >
    >Compare:
    >3. Life is matter which was configured by DNA. 4. Life is matter which has
    >been configured by DNA. 5. Life is matter which is being configured by
    >DNA.
    >The suggestion in (3) is that life is matter that once was configured by
    >DNA but no longer is. (4) suggests that life is matter that once was
    >configured by DNA and is still configured by DNA.
    >(4) is less patent nonsense than (3) but still wrong because Struan's dead
    >cat is considered life by this definition. (5) gives the impression DNA was
    >acting on matter to give it its configuration and is still actively doing
    >so, and this is the meaning you want to convey.

    Hi Rich

    Where were you when I was doing all that editing? :) I was mistaken about
    "been" being a present participle yet when used in conjunction with "has",
    "been" seems to relate to a past action which is still occurring in the
    present.

    I think (3) is wrong while (5) tends to give the impression that the
    configuring is not yet complete. While (4) is not perfect it seems to give
    the impression that the configuring was complete in the past and yet is
    still occurring in the present.
    I'll give it some thought that for the sake of clarity the sentence should
    be changed to (5) in the next edition, though of course I'll run it by RMP
    first.

    Thank you

    Dan

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