Single Idea 3434

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 7. Emergent Properties]

Full Idea

For the emergentist why pain emerges when C-fibres are excited remains a mystery (a 'brute fact'), but such properties then take on a life of their own as 'downward causation'.

Gist of Idea

Emergent properties are 'brute facts' (inexplicable), but still cause things

Source

Jaegwon Kim (Philosophy of Mind [1996], p.229)

Book Reference

Kim,Jaegwon: 'Philosophy of Mind' [Westview 1998], p.229


A Reaction

I don't think there are any 'brute facts', except perhaps at the lowest level of physics. Whatever happened to the principle of sufficient reason? Is the mind like God - a causal source which is uncaused?