A position paper by Juan Segurola, published on Zenodo in 2026, argues that science lacks a universally accepted definition of life because the word is simultaneously expected to classify entities, express a theory of living organization, and guide searches for biology unlike anything on Earth. These are, the paper contends, incompatible demands for one term to meet.
Segurola supports this by cataloguing where standard checklist definitions break down: sterile organisms are alive yet cannot reproduce, spores become nearly inert, viruses evolve without autonomous metabolism, and viroids or prions replicate patterns without being cells. He also compares four formal frameworks, including NASA's working formula, autopoiesis, the chemoton, and autonomy combined with open-ended evolution, finding that each illuminates some features of life while carrying its own blind spots. A further epistemological problem he raises is that Earth offers only one deeply related cellular biosphere, which means traits we call universal may reflect historical accident rather than genuine necessity.
The paper's proposed remedy is what Segurola calls disciplined pluralism: researchers should state explicitly which task they are addressing, which unit they are examining, and which criteria they are applying, then test those criteria against evidence. This is a normative recommendation, not an experimentally validated procedure.
Readers should weigh the evidence accordingly. This is a theoretical and philosophical review, not an empirical study; no new data were collected or analyzed, and the arguments rest on conceptual analysis and illustrative counter-examples drawn from existing biology. The work was posted to Zenodo, whose peer-review standards are variable and not equivalent to those of a conventional journal, so the peer-reviewed label warrants caution. The abstract-only read also limits assessment of the full argument.
The question bears on consciousness studies because, as the paper implies, judgments about where basal cognition or minimal awareness can begin depend on prior clarity about what counts as a living system in the first place. If the boundary of life is contested, so is the lower bound of any cognition or awareness tied to it. Source: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22336211