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Single Idea 17486

[filed under theme 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 5. Supervenience / c. Significance of supervenience ]

Full Idea

Supervenience is not an ontological relationship, being just modally robust property co-variance.

Clarification

'modally robust' means it persists through most possibilities

Gist of Idea

Supervenience is simply modally robust property co-variance

Source

Robin F. Hendry (Chemistry [2008], 'Ontol')

Book Ref

'Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science', ed/tr. Psillos,S/Curd,M [Routledge 2010], p.528


A Reaction

I take supervenience to be nothing more than an interesting phenomenon that requires explanation. I suppose Humean Supervenience is a priori metaphysics, since you could hardly explain it.


The 23 ideas with the same theme [what should be inferred from a supervenience]:

Two things being joined together doesn't prove they are the same [Descartes]
General facts supervene on particular facts, but cannot be inferred from them [Russell, by Bennett,K]
Life has a new supervenient relation, which alters its underlying physical events [Morgan,L]
The goodness of a picture supervenes on the picture; duplicates must be equally good [Hare]
Solidity in a piston is integral to its structure, not supervenient [Maslin on Searle]
Is supervenience just causality? [Searle, by Maslin]
Supervenience suggest dependence without reduction (e.g. beauty) [Kim]
Supervenience is not a dependence relation, on the lines of causal, mereological or semantic dependence [Kim]
Supervenience is just a 'surface' relation of pattern covariation, which still needs deeper explanation [Kim]
Pure supervenience explains nothing, and is a sign of something fundamental we don't know [Nagel]
A supervenience thesis is a denial of independent variation [Lewis]
Don't just observe supervenience - explain it! [Horgan,T]
Constitution (as in a statue constituted by its marble) is supervenience without identity [Crane]
Reduction requires logical supervenience [Chalmers]
Shadows are supervenient on their objects, but not reducible [Maslin]
If some facts 'logically supervene' on some others, they just redescribe them, adding nothing [Lynch/Glasgow]
If naturalism refers to supervenience, that leaves necessary entities untouched [Bird]
Supervenience offers little explanation for things which necessarily go together [Hofweber]
Supervenience is simply modally robust property co-variance [Hendry]
Necessities supervene on everything, but don't depend on everything [Liggins]
Aesthetics, morality and mind supervene on the physical? Modal on non-modal? General on particular? [Bennett,K]
Some entailments do not involve supervenience, as when brotherhood entails siblinghood [Bennett,K]
Reduction requires supervenience, but does supervenience suffice for reduction? [Bennett,K]