I was having a conversation with my daughter today and she was in an intro philo couse at school whereby we were talking about what part of the body is not physical and can I prove it? Wow I thought, that’s a cool question and really got me thinking. I view thoughts as not physical. How can thought be a living celled thing? Does it reside ina specific part of the brain - like in a dark corner somewhere? Yes, in a sense. I believe it’s somewhere not in a physical form. Its just there. Then I started thinking what even makes one think of a thought before the thought occurs? That sure can’t be physical either. Any thoughts on proving whats not physical with us?
Well, a thought is an electric charge. I would say that all things are physical in a sense.
You might find this link useful.
A
But is a thought a part of the body?
I’d say that anything that is a part of the body has to be physical. It’s inherently built into the definition. Thoughts - whatever they actually are - are produced by the body, but not actual parts of the body.
scottkleiman
I would define it as consciousness. By this I mean what connects our means of experiencing the external world: thought, feeling, and sensation. Normally these three are connected through imagination which takes the place of dormant consciousness so are not genuinely connected. Consciousness though dormant, is still a part of us. While imagination is unreal and cannot be considered a part of us, consciousness exists. You can prove it isn’t physical in the usual sense of the word because it cannot be measured. When you become conscious or self aware, you realize you weren’t before. When you lose this self awareness, it is forgotten again.
I would choose self awareness as the most likely none physical part of us as well. Only because I find it hard to be measured physically.
self awareness and thinking are things the body does, not a ‘part’ of it at all. Its like asking a car where it keeps its ‘acceleration’.
damn dualists. 
Alright, the self-aware entity then.
oreso writes:
Does the body create your arm? does the body create consciousness? Perhaps consciousness is a part of the complete human organism.
If a person is whispering in a room with people shouting, does that mean the whispering doesn’t exist because it is unheard? If our automatic thoughts and reactions are so strong that they block consciousness,does that mean it doesn’t exist? The body doesn’t create it. Certain changes in our bodily states may allow us to function consciously. The fact that it is normally in the background is not to say that the body creates its existence.
Consciousness may be a part of the human organism but we are unaware of it until circumstancces allow us to be conscious of ourselves for brief intervals. It doesn’t stop nor does the person whispering in a loud room stop. It just is no longer noticable because of the nature of our inner states
Funny, how this brings back a memory of work,but that is besides theh point. When talking about a consciousness, can we also say that we can be talking about a soul?
Oh I forget who said this, but some philosopher seems to think that the mind(soul) and body are connected. I can see this, how can one exist without the other??? Our physical body may be our existence, but could a property describing a person lay outside the physical realm? The soul is a persons esse, and in saying this, I have noted that this completely lays outside the realm of observation.
I’d like to note that the philosopher i was talking about was Leibniz
paxton:
No reason for such a thing. A car does not need an “acceleration entity”. Why not just, “my (physical) body does things consciously”?
nick a:
And perhaps i am actually a butterfly dreaming i am a man.
Nothing “creates” consciousness as a thing like an arm and there is no reason to think of it as such.
Your proceeding argument doesnt argue why i should consider consciousness as a thing, only that its self evident if i think about it, which is quite obviously not the case. WHY should i believe it is so? What phenomena is explained better otherwise?
fibonacci, i will only stop to observe that what lays outside observation does not exist.