Just learned today about how quantum theory implies that there is no such thing as a perfect vacuum. Very interesting as atomists had this duality of generic matter and pure void, while Aristotle rejected this duality....of course, you can't really come to a conclusive answer to a philosophical question, except perhaps to show sometimes that something what was once thought of as impossible is not only possible but actual.
How about defining it as an instance of functional complexity? And treating the list of properties as following necessarily from this definition? Okay, this is very diamond-in-the-rough (or perhaps zirconium...) but here goes my thoughts on the matter: (Complexity) Many diverse parts (functional) acting for the sake of the whole I think I need to add something like "not as the instrument of another" or something like that. Given that they act together as one whole and given entropy, etc., the organism will need to posses more order than its surroundings (homeostasis). It will therefore need to take in energy (nutrition), which it will use to sustain its readiness to interact with its environment so as to preserve its own being (homeostasis again?), but which will eventually break down (death), so that in order for that life form to continue it will need to duplicate itself (reproduction), which, upon occurring, will involve both development (growth) to maturity and...
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I bring it to your attention because his main contention involved ontological dualism of matter and space.