In Alexander's framework, a center's degree of life is a function of surrounding centers' configurations and their life-degree—a recursive definition.

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

• The degree of life of each center is correlated with the degree to which that center is a picture of the self, and this holds for all people, not just individuals.claim0.851
  Proposition 2 of the Mid-Book Appendix; the claim that self-likeness is a universal, species-wide measure of life.
• Degree of life varies with relative configuration of surrounding centers, not absolute properties.claim0.843
• The life of any one center depends on the life of other centers and is a function of the whole configuration.claim0.825
  A fundamental assertion about the relational nature of life.
• We can best assess function by assessing the degree of life in various centers.claim0.823
  Practical prescription for design: evaluate life instead of checking functional lists.
• The degree of life is well defined, objectively existing, and measurable.claim0.823
  Part of the fundamental hypothesis, asserting empirical accessibility.
• The life of a center is a phenomenon in which the center, like a window, makes contact with the plenum of absolute unity.claim0.820
  The definition of life in a center as contact with the absolute unity via tunneling.
• The degree of life is not merely a distinction between beautiful and ugly things but is detectable in every corner of the world.claim0.818
  Broadens the scope of life from aesthetics to a fundamental property.
• The relative degree of life is already there, in the computable, mathematical, structure of the space.claim0.816
  Affirmation that life is not merely subjective but an objective, calculable feature of space.