Supervenience

Supervenience is a form of strong emergence characterized by independence in interdependence: a system A is causal independent from a system B, and yet physically embedded in it. To say that A supervenes on B means that there can be no change in A without a change in B. If a system A is embedded in a system B, it is usually not possible to say who chances in system B affect system A. They are causal independent of each other. And yet there cannot be a difference in the system A without difference in the underlying system B, because the system A is embedded and realized by system B.

Supervenience is a kind of dependency relationship, typically held to obtain between sets of properties. A set of properties A is supervenient on a set of properties B, if and only if any two objects x and y which share all properties in B (are "B-indiscernible") must also share all properties in A.

Examples

A common example is the mind (system A) which supervenes on the brain (system B): any change in one's mental state implies that there has been some kind of change in one's brain state.

Links

• Supervenience in Wikpedia
• Supervenience in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy