Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Elements of Mind', 'Survival and Identity, with postscript' and 'Necessary Beings'

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3 ideas

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 5. Supervenience / a. Nature of supervenience
Aesthetic properties of thing supervene on their physical properties [Crane]
     Full Idea: It is sometimes said that the aesthetic properties of a thing supervene on its physical properties.
     From: Tim Crane (Elements of Mind [2001], 2.16)
     A reaction: A confusing example, as aesthetic properties only exist if there is an observer. Is 'supervenience' just an empty locution which tries to avoid reduction?
Interesting supervenience must characterise the base quite differently from what supervenes on it [Hale]
     Full Idea: Any intereresting supervenience thesis requires that the class of facts on which the allegedly supervening facts supervene be characterizable independently, without use or presupposition of the notions involved in stating the supervening facts.
     From: Bob Hale (Necessary Beings [2013], 03.4.1)
     A reaction: There might be intermediate cases here, since having descriptions which are utterly unconnected (at any level) might be rather challenging.
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 5. Supervenience / c. Significance of supervenience
Constitution (as in a statue constituted by its marble) is supervenience without identity [Crane]
     Full Idea: A statue is constituted by the marble that makes it up. It is plausible to say that constitution is not the same as identity - since identity is symmetrical and identity is not - but nonetheless constitution is a supervenience relation.
     From: Tim Crane (Elements of Mind [2001], 2.16)
     A reaction: So what makes it a statue, as opposed to a piece of marble? It may well be an abstraction which only exists relative to observers.