FoundationalConceptsNeuroscience

consciousness, related to not just one’s body but to the rest of what we
call physical reality?
The descriptive successes of biology in general and neuroscience in
particular are part of an explanatory picture of our world given us by
the framework of contemporary physical science. Within this frame-
work, living organisms are understood as configurations of atoms
and molecules, organized so as to use energy in the maintenance of
stability, information storage, and replication. This is what is called
reductionism—biology is explained in terms of (that is, reduced to)
what is considered to be the more basic science of chemistry, and
chemistry is understood in terms of the fundamental rules of matter
and energy as described by physics, and physics is grounded in elegant
mathematical structures and equations.
All this has provided us with a powerful framework for describing,
explaining, and understanding our world. Within this framework,
much can be calculated, predicted, engineered, and constructed. Ap-
plications are legion—from exploration of deep space, to the gizmos of
technology that have become so much a part of daily life, to molecular
manipulations helpful in the treatment of human disease. There is a
kind of seductiveness in the power of this physical description of the
world. It can sometimes feel like we have a relatively good grasp of the
whole shebang.
Yet, one might also argue the opposite—that at a deep level of
understanding of what we call reality, we simply do not know all that
much about what is going on. For example, what is the universe made
of? The periodic table of the chemical elements is wonderfully suc-
cessful for organizing the properties of all the matter with which we
routinely come into contact. And the principles of quantum physics
applied to the internal structures of the protons and neutrons of the
atomic nucleus yield an elegant description of what are considered