Are romance novels really alive? a discussion of the supple adaptation view of life

摘要

I will be discussing the plausibility of Mark Bedau's supple adaptation view of life. After presenting the tessential aspects of the view, I introduce a hypothetical system of romance novels and romance novel authors, which captures those aspects of a system which are necessary for life under Bedau's view. Using this romance novel system as a starting point, I discuss other intuitively non-living systems, like economies and scientific literature, which would be considered alive by Bedau's standards. Finally, I present one objection of Bedau's view and suggest how his view might change in order to become more widely accepted.