The Origin of Life as the Origin of Biological Persistence: Molecular Darwinitis, the Category Jump, and the Soft Problem of Life

Origin-of-life research has largely focused on how the components of life arose and became integrated. Biological persistence, the continued existence of a living system actively maintained by the system itself, is assumed to follow once chemistry is sufficiently complex. We argue that persistence is a distinct explanandum and identify two conceptual obstacles that have kept it out of view. Molecular Darwinitis applies biological categories such as survival, fitness and selection to chemical systems before biological organization exists. The Category Jump treats extreme improbability as a substitute for mechanism, and Darwinian vocabulary, we argue, keeps this jump hidden. What remains is the Soft Problem of Life: how matter acquired conatus, the capacity to maintain and restore the conditions of its own existence. We propose that conatus emerged gradually from a measurable persistence bias, name its still-unidentified source aliqon, and argue that primitive restoration plausibly preceded replication. The framework yields testable predictions and suggests a shift in emphasis: from asking only how life’s components arose to asking how chemistry became persistent.