Some might argue that there cannot be a first moment of the universe, because every moment, by definition has a past from which it comes (as well as a future toward which...). Here is a counter-argument. Every adult human being has, whenever he or she makes an observation, a present that has a past (and is the at least partially fulfilling future of that now gone-by past). So that human might generalize and say that experiences of the present includes, as a component of that present, the past. But if we treat this generalization as a necessary truth, then no human can have an experience of the present that does not include its having come from the past. In such a case, no human being could have a finite age. Each must have an infinite series of presents, each of which has a past. Which seems pretty absurd. The move from experiencing the present as having a past to assigning a necessity to this relationship is unwarranted, both in this case and in the previous one.
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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