Single Idea 4620

[catalogued under 17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 7. Anti-Physicalism / b. Multiple realisability]

Full Idea

Multiple realisability is not a relation among properties; it is the phenomenon of predicates applying to objects in virtue of distinct, though pertinently similar, properties possessed by those objects.

Gist of Idea

Multiple realisability is not a relation among properties, but an application of predicates to resembling things

Source

John Heil (Philosophy of Mind [1998], Ch.6)

Book Reference

Heil,John: 'Philosophy of Mind' [Routledge 1998], p.202


A Reaction

The analogies for multiple realisability usually involve functions rather than properties or predicates (different types of corkscrew). Pain or belief in danger are not just 'predicates'.