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Single Idea 12922

[filed under theme 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 5. Supervenience / a. Nature of supervenience ]

Full Idea

One thing 'expresses' another (in my terminology) when there exists a constant and fixed relationship between what can be said of one and of the other. This is the way that a perspectival projection expresses its ground-plan.

Gist of Idea

A thing 'expresses' another if they have a constant and fixed relationship

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Antoine Arnauld [1686], 1687.10.09)

Book Ref

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'The Leibniz-Arnauld Correspondence', ed/tr. Mason,HT/Parkinson,GHR [Manchester UP 1967], p.144

A Reaction

Arnauld was puzzled by what Leibniz might mean by 'express', and it occurs to me that Leibniz was fishing for the modern concept of 'supervenience'. It also sounds a bit like the idea of 'covariance' between mind and world. Maybe he means 'function'.

The 14 ideas with the same theme [defining and elucidating supervenience]:

12922 A thing 'expresses' another if they have a constant and fixed relationship [Leibniz]
3536 Supervenient properties must have matching base properties [Kim]
2310 Supervenience is linked to dependence [Kim]
9650 Supervenience concerns whether things could differ, so it is a modal notion [Lewis]
4077 Aesthetic properties of thing supervene on their physical properties [Crane]
2392 Properties supervene if you can't have one without the other [Chalmers]
10421 Supervenience is nowadays seen as between properties, rather than linguistic [Swoyer]
19281 Interesting supervenience must characterise the base quite differently from what supervenes on it [Hale]
15017 Supervenience is a modal connection [Sider]
6155 Supervenience is a one-way relation of dependence or determination between properties [Rowlands]
13747 Supervenience is just modal correlation [Schaffer,J]
16039 Supervenience: No A-difference without a B-difference [Bennett,K]
16043 Supervenience is non-symmetric - sometimes it's symmetric, and sometimes it's one-way [Bennett,K]
18680 To avoid misunderstandings supervenience is often expressed negatively: no A-change without B-change [Orsi]