An example of an analogy suggested by a scientist:
"On this view, the very existence of life must in biology be considered as an elementary fact, just as in atomic physics the existence of the quantum of action has to be taken as a basic fact that cannot be derived form ordinary mechanical physics. Indeed, the essential non-analysability of atomic stability in mechanical terms presents a close analogy to the impossibility of a physical or chemical explanation of the peculiar functions characteristic of life."
"…the essence of the analogy being considered is the obvious exclusiveness between such aspects of life as the self-preservation and the self-generation of individuals, on the one hand, and the subdivision necessary for any physical analysis on the other hand. Owing to this essential feature of complementarity [you can either have a creature alive or you can analyse its structure], the concept of purpose, which is foreign to mechanical analysis, finds a certain field of application in biology. Indeed, in this sense teleological argumentation may be regarded as a legitimate feature of physiological description which takes due regard to the characteristics of life in a way analogous to the recognition of the quantum of action in the correspondence argument of atomic physics."
"In fact, just as the quantum of action appears in the the account of atomic phenomena as an element for which an explanation is neither possible nor required, the notion of life is elementary in biological science where, in the existence and evolution of living organisms, we are concerned with manifestations of possibilities in that nature to which we belong rather than with the outcome of experiments which we can ourselves perform."
In a living organism, however, such a distinction between the measuring instruments and the objects under investigation can hardly be fully carried through, and we must be prepared that every experimental arrangement whose aim is a description of the functioning of the organism, which is well defined in the sense of atomic physics, will be incompatible with the display of life."
"In a living organism, however, such a distinction between the measuring instruments and the objects under investigation can hardly be fully carried through, and we must be prepared that every experimental arrangement whose aim is a description of the functioning of the organism, which is well defined in the sense of atomic physics, will be incompatible with the display of life."
Neils Bohr (2010) Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge (first published 1961). Dover Publications, Inc.
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