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JPierre's picture

Life vs Alive vs Living

I thought that the debate about life vs living was really interesting. That question really forced me to analyze those words and their meanings. After class, I decided to look up the most common definitions in the dictionary. Merriam Webster defined life as "the sequence of mental and physical experiences that make up an individual", whereas it describes the process of living as "exhibiting the life or motion of nature".

I somewhat agree with these definitions. I believe that to live or the act of being alive simply means to exist. Living signifies molecules, cells or (whatever is needed for that person or thing to function), all working inside to make sure that you as a person or thing function.  Living is a physical aspect, which I feel like everyone or thing can be (of course when I say "thing", I mean examples like plants or animals, not inanimate objects such as paper clips).

However, life is a little more difficult to achieve. life is about experiences, spirituality, emotions, thoughts, and etc. You can live and never experience something such as a life. A flower is living but will never experience the pain about its first breakup or the loss of a friend, or the happiness when receiving a diploma from college. It will never fear a deadline for a 20 page paper that it has never even started. A plant is incapable of experiencing this. And this is the same for a fetus in a mother's womb. Although it is living, it most certainly does not have a life.

 

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