Roczniki Filozoficzne

Volume 12, Issue 3, 1964

Szczepan W. Ślaga
Pages 79-86

The Basic Assumptions and the Value of the Theory of Abiogenesis

The article is an attempt of logical analysis of the theories of the origin of life. The author, accepting the definition of the theory of abiogenesis as a process of a slow, spontaneous and direct formation of living things from organic non-living compounds or directly from unorganic substances, presents three assumptions that occur in each theory of the origin of life. 1. The existence of the causality including physical and dynamic interrelation of events; this assumption contains two possibilities; the original formation of organic compounds and further evolution of these compounds. 2. The existence of the abiotic period in the history of earth. 3. Primitive living things were similar to the actually existing organisms. As to the value of abiogenesis the author emphasises verification and above all tendency to the empiric sensity of notions of the theory. The tendency in the explanation of the origin of life, non implicating any metaphysical solutions, is the only legal one within the scope of accepted empirical methods.