Via Negativa and the Characterization of the Physical

The aim in this paper is to analysis Sara Worley and Jessica Wilson's accounts about the conception of the term 'physical'. Worley's account is based op on on some information about how children form concepts. She suggests we are hard-wired to form a concept of intentional agency from a very young age, and so there’s some reason to believe that our concept of the physical does include, as part of its content, a contrast with the mental. But, Wilson defends an account according to witch fundamental physics and the NFM (no fundamental mentality) constraints are appropriate for characterizing the physical, especially for purposes of formulating physicalism. I want to show that these accounts, each one in respect to particular aspects, cannot play the given role in formulation the thesis of physicalism.