> We should attribute no normative weight to whether something should or shouldn't be scientifically analyzable. So we should always improve our means of observation, as well as our culture towards the things that are difficult [...]
I don't mean it necessarily has to be scientifically analyzable with current technology, but it must have some impact on the physical world (even if indirect) - else it cannot be what we're referring to.
I think we need to define consciousness or soul or whatever first. In the sense of the mind, even, what is a mind? There is something that does have to have some connection to our physical actions, but how we conceptualize that thing is more open-ended. "Physical" is more accurately, if crudely put, "forces and objects we can obviously observe", but science is the very question of what we observe, so we're treading on very uncharted territory with this topic. Maybe we will one day gain access to a very different world that will seem as obvious as being able to pick up a chair.
I don't mean it necessarily has to be scientifically analyzable with current technology, but it must have some impact on the physical world (even if indirect) - else it cannot be what we're referring to.