Knowledge Tree
body
synthesized from dimensionsThe concept of the "body" functions as a multifaceted anchor across biological, philosophical, and technical domains, generally denoting the physical, material, or corporeal manifestation of an entity. In its most fundamental sense, the body serves as the primary reference point for spatial orientation and structural organization. Anatomically, it provides the framework for defining directional relationships—such as lateral and distal positions—and is mapped through anatomical planes, such as the sagittal plane, which divide the organism into distinct sections.
Philosophically, the body is most frequently defined in its relationship to the mind or soul, a tension central to the mind-body problem Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Howard Robinson). Substance dualism, famously championed by René Descartes, posits a strict separation between the non-physical mind and the physical body Theology Commons; Lanell M. Mason, a framework historically utilized to exclude the mind from scientific inquiry according to Seager and Allen-Hermanson. Conversely, alternative perspectives such as those of Spinoza suggest that mind and body are one entity viewed from different vantage points, while Aristotelian thought views the soul as the form of the body, emphasizing unity over dualism Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Howard Robinson).
The significance of the body in consciousness studies remains a point of intense debate. While some cognitive and scientific models characterize the body as hardware for the brain’s software Biomedical Journal; Paul C. Mocombe, others argue that physicalist accounts of the body are insufficient to explain the existence of consciousness physical facts of body lack consciousness. Enaction theories further complicate this by arguing that experience is fundamentally tied to body-world interactions, rejecting the notion of the body as merely an intermediate entity between consciousness and the world Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
Theologically, the body has been historically defended as a vital component of human identity. Early Christian thought, such as that of Irenaeus, emphasized the value of the body against Gnostic denigration St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, and doctrines such as the resurrection of the dead affirm the necessity of a soul-body reunion St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. This reflects a broader understanding of bodily awareness, where individuals perceive the body not merely as an object, but as an extension of the self Bill Brewer (1995).
Beyond biological and metaphysical contexts, the term "body" is applied technically to describe structural components in systems, such as the body terminal in a MOSFET. Whether viewed as an anatomical reference, a philosophical subject of embodiment, or a technical component, the body remains a central, albeit contested, concept. It is simultaneously recognized as the essential vessel for subjective experience and as a physical entity that, according to some, remains distinct from the conscious mind.
Model Perspectives (3)
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The concept of 'body' in the provided facts is predominantly framed within philosophical and theological discussions contrasting it with mind or soul, portraying it as the physical, material, or corporeal aspect of human nature. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Howard Robinson) defines the mind-body problem as inquiring into the relationship between mental properties and physical properties, with the body representing the physical. Substance dualism explicitly positions the body as physical in distinction from the non-physical mind Theology Commons; Lanell M. Mason, a view developed by thinkers like René Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, and others St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. Theologically, early Christians like Irenaeus valued the body against Gnostic denigration St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, with creeds like Chalcedon affirming Jesus' rational soul and body St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, and resurrection entailing soul-body reunion St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. Philosophically, bodily awareness involves perceiving one's body as oneself Bill Brewer (1995), and sense of ownership arises from spatial sensations and judgments José Luis Bermúdez (2011). Aristotle viewed the soul as the form of the body, implying unity rather than strict dualism Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Howard Robinson), while cognitive psychology metaphorically casts the body as hardware to the brain's software Biomedical Journal; Paul C. Mocombe. The problem of embodiment questions a mind's housing in a body and ownership Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Howard Robinson).
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The concept of 'body' manifests across anatomical, philosophical, and technical domains in the provided facts. Anatomically, the body serves as the reference for positional terms and structures; for example, lateral denotes direction toward the body's side (Pressbooks), distal indicates farther from the trunk (Pressbooks), and anatomical planes like the sagittal plane divide it into left and right (Pressbooks). Specific parts include the clitoris body (Kenhub) and uterine body supplied by artery (Kenhub). Philosophically, the body is often defined circularly as tied to a subject, per Frontiers in Robotics and AI, and positioned as an intermediate entity between world and consciousness, critiqued as an 'intermediate level fallacy' (Frontiers in Robotics and AI). Dualism contrasts mind and body (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Howard Robinson), with René Descartes proposing it to exclude mind from science according to Seager and Allen-Hermanson (Stanford Encyclopedia). Alternatives include Spinoza's view of mind and body as one entity from different perspectives (arXiv) and enaction tying experience to body-world interactions (Frontiers in Robotics and AI; O'Regan and Nöe). Embodiment is faulted for exploiting ambiguous body definitions to reduce consciousness per Frontiers in Robotics and AI. Technically, a MOSFET includes a body terminal shorted to source (ProtoExpress). These facts portray 'body' as a multifaceted entity central to biology, metaphysics, and engineering, often in tension with mind or soul.
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The concept of 'body' emerges primarily in philosophical and scientific discussions of consciousness. According to SciTechDaily, reflexive consciousness registers body state alongside perceptions, sensations, thoughts, and actions, emphasizing self-focused awareness over environmental perception. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, citing Chalmers (2009) and Goff (2017), presents an argument against physicalism: physical facts of body lack consciousness, as one can conceive body and brain states existing without conscious facts, suggesting physicalism fails to explain consciousness fully. Paul C. Mocombe in the Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, referencing Strauss et al., notes scholarship views body as hardware for experiences, producing subjective phenomenal experiences through sociocultural forces, contrasting with software-focused approaches to conscious behavior. Collectively, these portray the body as physical hardware integral to but insufficient for consciousness.
Facts (105)
Sources
Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016 Edition) plato.stanford.edu Aug 19, 2003 24 facts
claimThe mind-body problem is the philosophical inquiry into the relationship between the mind and the body, or between mental properties and physical properties.
claimIf one rejects analytical accounts of mental predicates, such as behaviorism or functionalism, the conceivability argument suggests that the dependence of the mind on the body does not follow the standard models of dependence found in other scientific cases.
perspectiveThomas Aquinas argued that prayers addressed to saints (excluding the Blessed Virgin Mary) should be directed to the 'soul of the saint' rather than the saint themselves, because the soul is only a complete person when united with the body.
claimCommon sense suggests that the mind and body interact because everyday experience indicates that thoughts and feelings are sometimes caused by bodily events and sometimes cause bodily responses.
claimBefore Saul Kripke's work in 1972/1980, philosophers generally believed in contingent identity, which made the transition from the possibility of a mind existing without a body to the conclusion that the mind is a different entity from the body seem invalid.
claimThe conceivability argument establishes a prima facie case that the mind possesses only a causal ontological dependence on the body.
claimInteractionism is the view that the mind and body, or mental events and physical events, causally influence each other.
claimRené Descartes believed in a natural form of interaction between the immaterial mind and the material body.
claimDualism defines the mind in contrast to the body, though the specific aspects of the mind that receive focus have shifted throughout history.
claimThe zombie argument establishes only property dualism, and a property dualist might consider disembodied existence inconceivable if they believe the identity of a mind through time depends on its relation to a body.
claimPlato argued in the Phaedo that the intellect is immaterial because it must have an affinity with the immaterial Forms it apprehends, and this affinity drives the soul to strive to leave the body and dwell in the realm of Forms.
claimE. J. Lowe is a substance dualist who holds that a normal human being involves two substances: a body and a person.
claimThomas Aquinas held that without the body, the aspects of a person's memory that depend on corporeal images are lost.
claimGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz proposed that God set up the universe so that the mind and body always behave as if they were interacting, without requiring specific intervention on each occasion.
claimRené Descartes identified the pineal gland as the site of interaction between the mind and the body, primarily because it is not duplicated on both sides of the brain and thus serves as a candidate for a unique, unifying function.
claimNicolas Malebranche argued that natural interaction between mind and body was impossible, requiring God to intervene specifically on each occasion where interaction was needed.
claimModern Aristotelians emphasize that Aristotle was not a 'Cartesian' dualist because he viewed the soul as the form of the body rather than a separate substance.
claimThe problem of embodiment asks what it means for a mind to be housed in a body and what it means for a body to belong to a particular subject.
perspectiveRené Descartes' conception of the relationship between the mind and the body differed significantly from the Aristotelian tradition.
claimAristotle explained the union of body and soul by defining the soul as the form of the body, implying that a person's soul is equivalent to their nature as a human being.
claimProponents of the dualist argument claim that one can know a priori through introspection that the mind is not more-than-causally dependent on a radically different nature, such as a brain or body.
perspectiveGeorge Berkeley suggested that once genuine interaction between mind and body is ruled out, it is best to allow that God creates the physical world directly within the mental realm as a construct of experience.
claimA significant problem with Plato's dualism is the lack of a clear explanation for what binds a specific soul to a specific body, making their union a mystery.
claimAristotle's theory of the soul has been interpreted by many ancient and modern scholars as materialistic because it characterizes the soul as a property of the body.
Chapter 1. Body Structure – Human Anatomy and Physiology I louis.pressbooks.pub 13 facts
claimLateral describes the side or direction toward the side of the body.
claimDistal describes a position in a limb that is farther from the point of attachment or the trunk of the body.
claimA sagittal plane is a two-dimensional, vertical plane that divides the body or organ into right and left sides.
claimDeep (in anatomy) describes a position farther from the surface of the body.
claimA transverse plane is a two-dimensional, horizontal plane that divides the body or organ into superior and inferior portions.
claimA frontal plane is a two-dimensional, vertical plane that divides the body or organ into anterior and posterior portions.
claimA parasagittal plane is a sagittal plane that does not divide the body into equal left and right halves, also known as a longitudinal section.
claimMedial describes the middle or direction toward the middle of the body.
claimProximal describes a position in a limb that is nearer to the point of attachment or the trunk of the body.
claimAn anatomical plane is an imaginary two-dimensional surface that passes through the body.
claimSuperficial describes a position closer to the surface of the body.
claimA sagittal plane is an anatomical plane that divides the body or an organ vertically into right and left sides.
claimA midsagittal plane is a sagittal plane on the midline that divides the body into equal left and right halves, also known as a medial plane.
Mind and Consciousness - St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology saet.ac.uk Jun 20, 2024 12 facts
claimIrenaeus and other early Christian theologians emphasized the value of the body in explicit opposition to Gnosticism, which advanced a form of hyper-dualism that vilified or denigrated the body.
claimThe Council of Chalcedon referred to Jesus as having a rational soul and body, which serves as a historical hint of soul-body dualism in post-Nicene creeds.
claimTheological anthropology that recognizes both souls and bodies is often referred to as substance dualism.
claimJohn Calvin, in his 1960 work, interprets the biblical passage Ecclesiastes 12:7 as equating 'spirit' with 'soul', asserting that when the soul is freed from the body at death, God becomes its keeper.
claimSubstance dualism, which recognizes the distinct reality of the soul or mind and the body, has been developed by Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, the Florentine Academy, John Calvin, the Cambridge Platonists, René Descartes, John Locke, Thomas Reid, Richard Swinburne, and Alvin Plantinga.
perspectiveSallie McFague associates 'dualism' in recent theology with the denigration of the body and material embodiment.
claimMany Christians understand the resurrection of humans as the reuniting of soul and body, resulting in a resurrected body that is imperishable and spiritual.
claimThe Book of Common Prayer invites believers to present their souls and bodies as an oblation to God, reflecting the Christian liturgical use of the concepts of soul and body.
quotePaul along with most Jews and other early Christians habitually thought of man as a duality of two parts, corporeal and incorporeal, meant to function in unity but distinct and capable of separation [...] There is no single formula by which Paul expresses his dualist view of human nature, but terms such as ‘inner man’, ‘spirit’, ‘mind’, and ‘heart’ all refer to the incorporeal aspect or part, and terms such as ‘outer man’, ‘flesh’, ‘body’, ‘members’, and so forth all refer to the corporeal aspect or part.
claimThe practice of seeking the intercession of saints suggests that individuals who have died can be aware of and act on behalf of the living prior to the resurrection of their bodies.
quoteMoreover, there can be no question that man consists of a body and a soul; meaning by soul, an immaterial though created essence, which is his nobler part. Sometimes he is called a spirit.
referenceIn 'History of the Concept of Mind', Paul Macdonald writes that the book of Maccabees explicitly demonstrates body-soul dualism by depicting the immortal soul separating from the body at death, where the soul of the righteous is received by the patriarchs.
Self-Consciousness - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 13, 2017 8 facts
perspectiveJosé Luis Bermúdez (2011) argues for a reductive account of the sense of ownership over one's own body, consisting of the phenomenology of the spatial location of bodily sensations combined with the disposition to judge the body in which they occur as one's own.
claimBill Brewer (1995) argues that bodily awareness involves perceiving one's body as oneself because bodily sensations are perceived as properties of oneself and as located properties of the body.
claimP.F. Strawson defines the concept of a person as 'primitive' by asserting it is logically prior to the concepts of 'subject' and 'body,' meaning persons are not compounds of subjects and bodies.
claimRené Descartes questioned whether one is identical to one's body in his work Meditations.
referenceFrédérique de Vignemont investigates the sense of ownership of one's own body in her 2007 paper 'Habeas Corpus: The Sense of Ownership of One’s Own Body'.
quoteDerek Parfit identifies two prominent reductionist claims: first, that 'a person’s existence consists in the existence of a brain and body, and the occurrence of a series of interrelated physical and mental event'; and second, that '[t]hough persons exist, we could give a complete description of reality without claiming that persons exist.'
claimThe 'sense of ownership' helps explain why it is difficult to conceive of experiencing a thought located in another person's mind or pain located in another person's body.
referenceGalen Strawson discussed the relationship between the self, the body, and experience in the 1999 article 'Self, Body, and Experience' published in the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness | Springer Nature Link link.springer.com 7 facts
claimIf mind and body interact, they constitute a single system, meaning energy exchange between them would not necessarily violate conservation laws.
claimScholastic scholars like Thomas Aquinas propagated Aristotle’s view, which suggested an ontological monism rather than a dualistic model of the mind and body.
claimInteractionism refers to approaches that attribute a causal role to consciousness, implying that mind and body influence each other, whereas epiphenomenalism refers to approaches that deny any influence of the mind on the body.
claimCartesian dualism has been identified as the most central problem of modern science and the modern/colonial worldview due to its ontological dualism, which contributes to the 'Great Divide' between mind and body, subject and object, human and non-human, culture and nature, humanities and natural sciences, and Us and Them.
claimVon Stillfried distinguishes between 'strong' epiphenomenalism, which denies any interaction between mind and body, and 'weak' epiphenomenalism, which only denies the causal role of consciousness.
claimRichard Rorty (1979) argues that while the Greeks viewed the body and soul as separated, they considered sensations to pertain to the body, whereas intellect or reason was viewed as divine and separated from the physical body.
claimThe humanities are trapped by the Cartesian subject, which leads them to repeatedly discover the illusiveness of reality while failing to bridge the gap between subject and object, mind and body, and individual and society.
Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Consciousness and the Intermediate ... frontiersin.org Apr 17, 2018 5 facts
claimThe definition of a body is circular because an object is typically considered a body only when it is the body of a subject, yet the body is simultaneously the cornerstone of the subject.
claimThe body is considered an intermediate entity intended to bridge the gap between the world and consciousness, which the author identifies as the 'intermediate level fallacy.'
referenceEnaction suggests that experience is constituted by a body and its interactions with the world, and therefore may be implemented in artifacts, according to O'Regan and Nöe (2001).
perspectiveEmbodiment attempts to exploit the intermediate level fallacy by using an ambiguous definition of a body to reduce consciousness to the level of the body.
perspectiveThe notion of embodiment self-contradicts its original intentions because it was taken into consideration to eliminate the immaterial mind, yet it relies on the body and its interaction with the world as a solution.
The Compatibility of Christianity with Panpsychism, Part 1 theologycommons.gcu.edu Sep 2, 2025 5 facts
claimSubstance dualism posits that the mind is non-physical while the body is, at least in part, physical.
quoteThe Apostle Paul claims in 2 Corinthians 5:6 that "while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord."
claimThe 'Bodily Soul' view posits that the body and mind are two different modes of the same unified being that possesses both mental and physical properties, making the distinction between them less stark than in Cartesian dualism.
perspectiveThe author of 'The Compatibility of Christianity with Panpsychism, Part 1' interprets the Apostle Paul's statements in Romans 8:10-11 and 2 Corinthians 4:10 as describing the perfection of current bodies rather than the replacement of an old body with a new one.
perspectiveContemporary Christian philosophers generally view the immaterial soul and physical body as more integrated than René Descartes did, aiming to preserve the body's value and its relationship to identity.
Dualism, Physicalism, and Philosophy of Mind - Capturing Christianity capturingchristianity.com Dec 11, 2019 3 facts
claimProperty dualism does not require the belief in an immaterial soul; it allows for the possibility that the subject of experiences is a brain or body that possesses both ordinary physical properties and irreducibly mental properties.
claimPhysicalists suggest that the self is a physical object, such as a body or a brain, and that conscious states are ultimately physical states.
perspectiveThe author of the Capturing Christianity article prefers the view that a person is a soul that maintains a special causal relationship with their body, rather than viewing a person as a composite of body and soul.
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 3 facts
claimThe argument from physiology posits that because all physical events discovered in the brain and body have physical explanations, all physical events, including those associated with consciousness, must have physical explanations.
claimThe argument from physiology posits that physical causal closure is supported by the lack of evidence for non-physical forces influencing the brain and body, alongside progress toward a complete physical explanation of all biological processes.
referenceThe argument from physical causal closure, supported by Kim (1989), Papineau (2001), Melnyk (2003), and Montero and Papineau (2016), focuses on how consciousness affects the brain, the body, and the physical world in general.
Female reproductive organs: Anatomy and functions kenhub.com 2 facts
claimThe clitoris is located at the most superior part of the vulvar vestibule, surrounded by the anterior part of the labia minora, and consists of three parts: the root, body, and glans.
claimThe uterus receives its primary arterial blood supply from the uterine artery, which arises from the internal iliac artery; the superior branch supplies the body and fundus, while the inferior branch supplies the cervix.
Theories and Methods of Consciousness biomedres.us Jan 29, 2024 2 facts
claimCognitive psychology accounts for both the objective formation of consciousness and individual subjective experiences by metaphorically viewing the brain as software and the body as hardware working together to produce subjective behavior.
referenceScholarship on consciousness focuses either on the software producing conscious behavior or on the body as hardware producing subjective phenomenal experiences via sociocultural forces, according to Strauss et al.
Not Minds, but Signs: Reframing LLMs through Semiotics - arXiv arxiv.org Jul 1, 2025 2 facts
claimBaruch Spinoza argued that the mind and the body are the same entity viewed from different perspectives, comparing the relationship to a melody and its corresponding sheet music.
claimBaruch Spinoza characterized emotions as ideas regarding the state of one's body, arguing that understanding these emotions leads to clarity rather than repression.
Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART) frontiersin.org 2 facts
referenceDorothée Legrand introduced basic forms of self-consciousness in the 2007 article 'Subjectivity and the body: introducing basic forms of self-consciousness' published in Consciousness and Cognition.
referenceMindful awareness is applied across four domains of experience: the body, feelings or affective tone, current mental states, and the matrix of interrelationships among all phenomena arising in consciousness.
Quantum Theory of Consciousness - Scirp.org. scirp.org 2 facts
claimThe authors of 'Quantum Theory of Consciousness' assert that conscious experience is underpinned by stable atomic, molecular, cellular, and internal structures within the brain and body that provide connection, correlation, and coherence.
claimThe Quantum Theory of Consciousness (QTOC) aims to explain the large-scale, near-instantaneous synchrony of brainwaves (gamma, beta, and alpha) and their correlation with Schumann Resonances, as well as coherence between the brain, body, external objects, the Earth, the Sun, and the universe.
Epistemology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
referenceDuoyi Fei authored 'Beyond the Brain: How the Mind and the Body Shape Each Other,' published by Springer Nature Singapore in 2023 (ISBN 978-981-19-9558-3).
Do all non-physicalist theories of consciousness face the interaction ... philosophy.stackexchange.com Nov 17, 2025 1 fact
claimModern scientific understanding of causation, which includes non-contact, probabilistic, and distance-based interactions, does not resolve the interaction problem for dualism but rather complicates it by requiring an explanation of how non-physical consciousness interacts with the body.
Global overview of dietary outcomes and dietary intake assessment ... link.springer.com Aug 21, 2021 1 fact
referenceA 2012 historical study by de Almeida analyzed body, health, and nutrition in the Brazilian Navy during the post-abolition period from 1890 to 1910, published in História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos.
Why Sleep Is Important for Brain Health - American Brain Foundation americanbrainfoundation.org Mar 16, 2022 1 fact
claimSleep and circadian rhythms have a bidirectional relationship where the brain and body regulate sleep, while sleep and circadian rhythms simultaneously affect the brain and body.
Self-Consciousness - Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science oecs.mit.edu Jul 24, 2024 1 fact
claimJohn Locke (1632–1704) defined selfhood in terms of self-consciousness and extended the boundaries of selfhood to include the body.
[PDF] Consciousness and Mind - PhilArchive philarchive.org 1 fact
claimA fundamental philosophical inquiry regarding the mind involves determining what the mind is and how the mind relates to the body.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2015 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 1 fact
claimRené Descartes's dualism of mind and body was motivated by the desire to remove the mind from the scientific picture of the world.
Basic Electronic Components | Sierra Circuits protoexpress.com 1 fact
claimA MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) is a four-terminal semiconductor device with drain, gate, source, and body terminals, where the body is shorted with the source terminal.
Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu Jun 18, 2004 1 fact
claimImmanuel Kant (1787), Edmund Husserl (1913), and subsequent phenomenologists demonstrated that the phenomenal structure of experience is intentional and includes complex representations of time, space, cause, body, self, and the world.
Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence? A Framework for Classifying ... arxiv.org Nov 20, 2025 1 fact
perspectiveLandgrebe and Smith argue that consciousness relies on chaotic dynamical coupling between the brain, body, and environment, whereas digital computational systems are engineered to suppress chaotic effects.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 1 fact
claimRené Descartes proposed dualism of mind and body as a way to remove the mind from the scientific picture of the world.
Self, selfhood and understanding - infed.org infed.org 1 fact
claimThe 'self as container' model defines the body as a physical boundary, where the skin separates the 'self' (the world inside) from the 'other' (the world outside).
Benefits of Sleep: Improved Energy, Mood, and Brain Health sleepfoundation.org Jul 22, 2025 1 fact
claimElectronic devices such as phones, tablets, and computers stimulate the mind, making it more challenging for the brain and body to wind down at night.
Scientists Identify the Evolutionary “Purpose” of Consciousness scitechdaily.com Nov 27, 2025 1 fact
claimReflexive consciousness focuses on the conscious registration of aspects of oneself, including the state of one's body, perception, sensations, thoughts, and actions, rather than solely on perceiving the environment.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 1 fact
referenceA common argument against physicalism, cited by Chalmers (2009) and Goff (2017), is that one can conceive of physical facts of the body and brain obtaining in the absence of facts about consciousness, implying physical facts cannot wholly account for the facts about consciousness.