Single Idea 3478

[catalogued under 17. Mind and Body / D. Property Dualism / 5. Supervenience of mind]

Full Idea

Once you recognise the existence of bottom-up, micro to macro forms of causation, the notion of supervenience no longer does any work in philosophy.

Gist of Idea

Upwards mental causation makes 'supervenience' irrelevant

Source

John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 5.V)

Book Reference

Searle,John R.: 'The Rediscovery of the Mind' [MIT 1999], p.126


A Reaction

I'm not sure if the notion of supervenience ever did any work. Davidson only fished up the word because none of the normal relationships between things seemed to apply (and he was wrong about that).