The meaning of life

EY PROF. J. K. MAJUMDAR, M. A., PH. D, A deal of ambiguity attaches to the question as to the meaning of the term 'Hfe". The term "Hfe" has usually been confined to biological phenomena ; "the initial question of Biology", we are told, "is the nature and characteristics of living matter—the determination of that wherein 'livingness' consists."^ The term "life" has been taken to be the characteristic quality which is common to plants, animals and man and which distinguishes them from all other things in nature. "Life", Prof. J. A. Thomson warns us, is distinctively a biological concept and there is always a risk in transferring it to other fields.In its widest sense, "life" may be defined from the biological point of view as the manifestation of