Basic Definition

As a general rule :"Anything that moves is ALIVE."
Movement here is applied in its broadest sense.
1- Heat is a kind of movement(in fact measuring heat is measuring the average movement of particles in a given medium)

2- Music is transmitted vibration

3- String theory says that when strings vibrate with different frequencies different kind of matter is represented.

4- In our world as we know it even in something cold and hard as stone, there are electrons orbiting the nucleus at amazing speed.

Anything that moves is ALIVE
So we can add "THE FORCE OF LIFE" at the moment of big bang to other forces in action and it explains some difficult mysteries of our universe. As you can see , laws of economics and evolution; alongside with chaos theory and even thermodynamics are in fact explaining different aspects of the fundamental force of life as it affects things directly.
According to this , we have a very reasonable definition of life to resolve many unfruitful debates over what is life and by the way we have a very wonderful and precise model of explaining the universe "AS IT IS" .