生命的起源是一个充满争议的领域,不仅因为我们对相关问题的模糊理解,而且,也许更多的时候,由于我们在整个领域的概念框架都很模糊。为了改善这种状况,这里进行了深入的概念剖析。阐明了,在它的核心,生命的起源有三个方面。过程中涉及的事实被视为历史方面,这注定是不确定的,而且往往与关于细节的辩论无关。所涉及的规则包括两个不同的方面:整个过程中运行的化学机制,而进化机制只有在第一个达尔文实体出现后才加入-然后解释了随后复杂性的积累(这不能仅仅通过自然选择来解释)。基本上,我们可以询问生命起源中任何假定事件的可能性:“它在进化上是否合理,化学上可行,从历史上看,这三个方面中的任何一个方面的线索在指导我们对其他两个方面的探索时都可能非常有价值。这种概念上的剖析为该领域提供了更清晰的背景,这甚至可能比任何类型的具体研究更有用。
The origin of life is a field full of controversies, not only because of our vague understanding concerning the relevant issues, but also, perhaps more often, owing to our dim conceptual framework throughout the whole field. To improve this situation, an in-depth conceptual dissection is presented here. It is elucidated that, at its core, the origin of life has three aspects. The facts involved in the process are taken as the historical aspect, which is destined to be uncertain and often irrelevant to debate regarding details. The rules involved include two distinct aspects: chemical mechanisms operated in the whole process, while evolutionary mechanisms joined in only after the emergence of the first Darwinian entities - and then accounted for the subsequent buildup of complexity (this cannot be explained solely by natural selection). Basically, we can ask about the possibility of any assumed event in the origin of life: \'Is it evolutionarily plausible, chemically feasible, and historically likely?\' Clues from any of the three aspects may be quite valuable in directing our explorations on the other two. This conceptual dissection provides a clearer context for the field, which may even be more useful than any sort of specific research.