In this review, we describe some of the central philosophical issues facing origins-of-life research and provide a targeted history of the developments that have led to the multidisciplinary field of origins-of-life studies. We outline these issues and developments to guide researchers and students from all fields. With respect to philosophy, we provide brief summaries of debates with respect to (1) definitions (or theories) of life, what life is and how research should be conducted in the absence of an accepted theory of life, (2) the distinctions between synthetic, historical, and universal projects in origins-of-life studies, issues with strategies for inferring the origins of life, such as (3) the nature of the first living entities (the "bottom up" approach) and (4) how to infer the nature of the last universal common ancestor (the "top down" approach), and (5) the status of origins of life as a science. Each of these debates influences the others. Although there are clusters of researchers that agree on some answers to these issues, each of these debates is still open. With respect to history, we outline several independent paths that have led to some of the approaches now prevalent in origins-of-life studies. These include one path from early views of life through the scientific revolutions brought about by Linnaeus (von Linn.), Wöhler, Miller, and others. In this approach, new theories, tools, and evidence guide new thoughts about the nature of life and its origin. We also describe another family of paths motivated by a" circularity" approach to life, which is guided by such thinkers as Maturana & Varela, Gánti, Rosen, and others. These views echo ideas developed by Kant and Aristotle, though they do so using modern science in ways that produce exciting avenues of investigation. By exploring the history of these ideas, we can see how many of the issues that currently interest us have been guided by the contexts in which the ideas were developed. The disciplinary backgrounds of each of these scholars has influenced the questions they sought to answer, the experiments they envisioned, and the kinds of data they collected. We conclude by encouraging scientists and scholars in the humanities and social sciences to explore ways in which they can interact to provide a deeper understanding of the conceptual assumptions, structure, and history of origins-of-life research. This may be useful to help frame future research agendas and bring awareness to the multifaceted issues facing this challenging scientific question.

Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Washington DC 20011 USA Science and Technology Policies Department Middle East Technical University 06800 Ankara Turkey

CNRS BIP IMM Aix Marseille University Marseille France

Department of Anthropology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute University of California Berkeley CA USA

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Valéncia and Institute for Integrative Systems Biology I2SysBio València Spain

Department of Earth and Space Science Osaka University Machikaneyama Chou 1 1 Toyonaka City Osaka 560 0043 Japan

Department of Evolutionary Biology School of Sciences UNAM 04510 CDMX Coyoacán Mexico

Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science IAS Research Centre for Life Mind and Society University of the Basque Country Avenida de Tolosa 70 20018 Donostia San Sebastian Spain

Department of Philosophy Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Reno Nevada USA

Department of Philosophy University of Colorado Boulder Colorado USA

Department of the History of Medicine Johns Hopkins University Baltimore MD USA

Earth Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152 8551 Japan

Earth Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152 8551 Japan Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Washington DC 20011 USA Institute for Advanced Study Princeton NJ 08540 USA European Centre for Living Technology Venice Italy Center for Chemical Evolution Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta GA 30332 USA

Earth Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152 8551 Japan Department of Earth Sciences University of Southern California California Los Angeles 90089 USA

Earth Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152 8551 Japan Department of Information Sciences Ochanomizu University Bunkyoku Otsuka 2 1 1 Tokyo 112 0012 Japan

Earth Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152 8551 Japan Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences California Institute of Technology 1200 E California Blvd Pasadena CA 91125 USA

Earth Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152 8551 Japan Institute for Advanced Study Princeton NJ 08540 USA

Earth Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152 8551 Japan Institute for Advanced Study Princeton NJ 08540 USA Department of Marine and Coastal Science Rutgers University 71 Dudley Rd New Brunswick NJ 08901 USA YHouse Inc NY 10159 New York USA Department of Biology University of Naples Federico 2 Via Cinthia 80156 Naples Italy

Earth Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152 8551 Japan Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences Leipzig Germany European Centre for Living Technology Venice Italy

Earth Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152 8551 Japan Space Science Centre Institute of Climate Change Level 3 Research Complex National University of Malaysia 43600 UKM Bangi Selangor Malaysia Department of Physical Chemistry University of Chemistry and Technology Prague Technicka 5 16628 Prague 6 Dejvice Czech Republic

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus Ashburn VA 20147 USA Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Cambridge CB2 3EJ UK

Institute for Applied Mathematics and Systems Research 04510 Mexico City Mexico

UMR 7205 ISYEB CNRS MNHN UPMC 75005 Paris France

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