more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 2995

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

Full Idea

Mind/brain supervenience is the best idea anyone has had so far about how mental causation is possible.

Gist of Idea

Supervenience gives good support for mental causation

Source

Jerry A. Fodor (Psychosemantics [1987], p. 30)

Book Ref

Fodor,Jerry A.: 'Psychosemantics' [MIT 1993], p.30


A Reaction

I would have thought that mind brain identity was a much better idea (see Idea 3440). Supervenience seems to prove that 'mental causation' occurs, but doesn't explain it.

Related Idea

Idea 3440 Without reductionism, mental causation is baffling [Kim]


The 19 ideas with the same theme [total mapping of thoughts onto brain events]:

Even if tightly united, mind and body are different, as God could separate them [Descartes]
Identical objects must have identical value [Ross]
Supervenience of the mental means physical changes mental, and mental changes physical [Davidson]
If mind-brain supervenience isn't causal, this implies epiphenomenalism [Searle]
Mental events can cause even though supervenient, like the solidity of a piston [Searle]
Upwards mental causation makes 'supervenience' irrelevant [Searle]
Mind and brain are supervenient in respect of cause and effect [Searle]
Non-Reductive Physicalism relies on supervenience [Kim]
Maybe strong supervenience implies reduction [Kim]
Supervenience says all souls are identical, being physically indiscernible [Kim]
Zombies and inversion suggest non-reducible supervenience [Kim]
Epiphenomenalism is supervenience without physicalism [Papineau]
Supervenience requires all mental events to have physical effects [Papineau]
Supervenience gives good support for mental causation [Fodor]
Supervenience can be replaced by identifying mind with higher-order or disjunctional properties [Papineau]
If mental supervenes on the physical, then every physical cause will be accompanied by a mental one [Crane]
Zombies imply natural but not logical supervenience [Chalmers]
If mind supervenes on the physical, it may also explain the physical (and not vice versa) [Fine,K]
Supervenience of mental and physical properties often comes with token-identity of mental and physical particulars [Rowlands]