Indiscernible  

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-{{Template}}+#Redirect [[indiscernibles]]
-In [[philosophy]], '''supervenience''' is a kind of dependency relationship, typically held to obtain between [[set (mathematics)|sets]] of [[Property (philosophy)|properties]]. According to one standard definition, a set of properties A supervenes 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 (are "A-indiscernible"). That is, A-properties supervene on B-properties if being B-indiscernible [[entailment|implies]] being A-indiscernible. The properties in B are called the ''base properties'' (or sometimes ''subjacent'' or ''subvenient properties''), and the properties in A are called the ''supervenient properties''. Equivalently, if two things differ in their supervenient properties then they must differ in their base properties. To give a somewhat simplified example, if psychological properties supervene on physical properties, then any two persons who are physically indistinguishable must also be psychologically indistinguishable; or equivalently, any two persons who are psychologically different (e.g., having different thoughts), must be physically different as well. Importantly, the reverse does not follow (supervenience is not symmetric): even if being the same physically implies being the same psychologically, two persons can be the same psychologically yet different physically: that is, psychological properties can be [[Multiple realizability|multiply realized]] in physical properties.+
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-Supervenience has traditionally been used to describe relationships between sets of properties in a manner which does not imply a strong [[Reductionism|reductive]] relationship. For example, many hold that economic properties supervene on physical properties, in that if two [[possible world|worlds]] were exactly the same physically, they would also be the same economically. However, this does not entail that economics can be reduced in any straightforward way to physics. Thus, supervenience allows one to hold that "high-level phenomena" (like those of economics, psychology, or aesthetics) depend, ultimately, on physics, without assuming that one can study those high-level phenomena using means appropriate to physics.+
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-== See also ==+
-* [[Philosophy of mind]]+
-* [[Functionalism (philosophy of mind)]]+
-* [[Emergentism]]+
-* [[Physicalism]]+
-{{GFDL}}+

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  1. Redirect indiscernibles
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