This talk investigates the impact of a non-reductionist view of reality on the sciences. We examine claims that assert “all reality is nothing but…”. For example, the claim that consciousness is nothing but electrical impulses in the brain, or that biological processes are nothing but physical/chemical reactions. What happens if the theories and explanations in a discipline eliminate such “nothing but” claims? What new insights become available for theories that take reality to be multi-aspectual and multi-leveled? Are they actually freed from pre-conceived limits so as to account for more sides to their data? Are there clear strategies for explanation that are non-reductionist?