Disclaimer: I neither claim to be nor am I a 'philosopher'. I can recommend you to keep reading if you want to read (and potentially) answer some questions which spring from a curious "scientifically-oriented" mind.
Someone asked, what is life?
Ever wondered that if everything that the body does is just chemical reactions and the outcome of really precisely laid out cells then what really makes them live? Is there a some switch which activates the really precise arrangement of the cells and they start to "live"? Or its just that if we put all the cells one-by-one in exactly the same fashion, the body will instantly come to life the moment we plug in the last cell!
May we can understand this if we can know that what is it that makes a body lose life. Why does it die and what is it that changes in the body when it dies? A body loses life when some of the cells regulating its activities becomes maligned or is blocked from carrying out its function. Or in other words its no longer part of the body in the same formula in which it existed earlier. But that again does not hint at the presence (or absence) of some kind of "switch" which activates and deactivates the body.
Why can't a dead body be brought to life again? Earlier logic would say that this should indeed be possible if we know how to find out the maligned cells and restore them in the body according to their original mapping. What if the cells get damaged? We need to replace them. We also know the body itself has the best possible auto repair mechanism built right into it. There are cells which function only to check the function of other cells and so on. So maybe the best replace procedure would be start with basic cells and bring the body to a state where it can start replacing its cells automatically. Also, there would be certain parts of the body which wont be able to do this replacement by itself - like the brain. Will that potentially curb or even stop any hopes of an established replacement procedure?
Well, much said (and nothing done) it does seem like a "herculean" task. The question to answer is - Will the body start to live again if we are able to replace all the dead cells and put them in their proper positions?
What is life? Well I am afraid not many know what it is. Yes, many people do have an opinion of what life is all about and what it sums to. Many relate it to existence - the ability to perceive the environment and react to it. So is that all that separates a living form from a non-living form? If that be the case do we have some kind of universal meter that can gauge if a form is living or not? If yes, then how does this meter record the ability of the form to perceive its environment? A rock is swayed in the wind and its rubbed by the waves. Does that not amount to a reaction to external stimuli? But then, is rock a living form?
Would love to hear some voices.