Single Idea 16211

[catalogued under 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 5. Supervenience / d. Humean supervenience]

Full Idea

Imagine a perfectly homogeneous non-atomistic disc. A record of all the non-relational information about the world at that moment will not reveal whether the disc is rotating about a vertical axis through. This tells against Humean supervenience.

Gist of Idea

A homogeneous rotating disc should be undetectable according to Humean supervenience

Source

Katherine Hawley (How Things Persist [2001], 3.2)

Book Reference

Hawley,Katherine: 'How Things Persist' [OUP 2004], p.73


A Reaction

[Armstrong 1980 originated this, and it is famously discussed by Kripke in lectures] There will, of course, be dispositions present because of the rotation, but Lewis excludes any such modal truths.