Are viruses alive?

[EdRegis]

Harwood writes:

>I'm afraid I can't take this discussion about whether viruses are alive 
>or not all that seriously.  It doesn't matter what we think they are 
>since our classifications are constructs of our minds and do not 
>influence what viruses are or what they do.  

We don't just make up classifications.  If they're any good, they arise
out of the phenomena classified.  Anyone who doubts this ought to read a
truly excellent discussion in Richard Dawkin's book The Blind Watchmaker,
ch. 10, "The One True Tree of Life," in which he argues that taxonomy, the
science of classification, is not at all a free invention of the human
mind, and furtherfmore that there is only *one* correct classification of
living things, and that this classification can be proved to be correct.

Ed
edregis at aol.com/"186,000 miles per second is not just a good idea, it's
the law!"