abstractcolor asked: I know that your statements weren't meant as fact. Just trying to lend help to the pursuit of understanding :). We call dead bodies "bodies," is what I meant. So the function of being alive and having a mind isn't intrinsic to the property of being a body, or even a brain, but rather is one state that the body can be in. And maybe to separate being alive from having a mind, imagine someone in a vegetative state. It's hard to describe what mind is without appeals to the non-physical/abstract.

Thank you for explaining!

As for vegetative people, I don’t think that’s separate enough. Still, it’s a physical brain, and some parts of it just aren’t working in the most optimal way — but it’s working well enough to keep that body living. Having written that out, actually, I guess the “mind” being present or absent is a matter of it working “up to standards”…

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