 There is no conceptual reason why animal bodies are any less suitable vehicles for embodying a Cartesian soul, or any other of the putatively non-physical aspects of mind posited by proponents of dualism, than are human bodies. Hence, dualism does not preclude animal minds as a matter of conceptual necessity. The distribution of consciousness is a matter of empirical contingency on dualist theories as for physicalist theories. For some dualists, this may come down to whether or not the animals in question possess specific cognitive capacities, although others may argue that the non-physical nature of the mental makes it difficult or impossible to investigate empirically. 