yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Supervenience


2m read
·Nov 8, 2024

One of the questions was, "Um, how is it that logic supervenes on our brains?"

And I think it's a good question.

Um, I think it's a question that we're not currently in a position to give a full answer to.

Um, for that, our understanding of how the brain and the mind are interrelated needs to be, uh, much more advanced than it currently is.

Um, but I think by way of analogy, I can give you an idea of how, uh, a materialist conception of the mind—how it, how it can, how it approaches this question.

Anyway, so to take the example of a computer, um, we know exactly, uh, the parts that make up a computer, and we know exactly what happens in those parts in order for the computer to do the things it's expected to do.

Ultimately, what happens inside a computer is electrons move around.

That's all it is at a basic level, and yet we're happy to say things like the computer calculates, uh, a sum, an equation, or the computer displays a web page.

And yet we don't feel the need to posit some kind of immaterial entity or immaterial knowledge or symbol or something from another realm that somehow is injected into the computer that enables it to do these things.

We know exactly what's in a computer, what happens in a computer, and we also know that in a manner of speaking, the result is greater than the sum of its parts.

The ability to calculate or to display a web page supervenes on the fundamental activity of electrons in a computer.

And what the materialist worldview says, or at least the version that I'm familiar with, is that in a similar way, the electrical and chemical activity inside the brain gives rise to Consciousness, thought, abstract Concepts, etc.

So logic, as in our internal representation of the most general features of the reality in which we find ourselves, logic in that sense supervenes on the physical.

I hope that makes it a bit clearer.

More Articles

View All
How to find a mentor - the RIGHT way
What’s up you guys, it’s Graham here. So this is probably one of the most important topics that I’m going to be discussing so far, and it’s about mentoring. I feel like so many people are so caught up right now in trying to find a mentor. They think that …
New High Speed Camera, Road Trip & a Mousetrap Challenge | Smarter Every Day 56
Hey, it’s me, Destin. So, I feel like I owe you an apology for not making videos the last couple of weeks, but when I explain why, I hope you will accept my apology. So, it started like this. I got something in the mail. Turns out it is the new Phantom c…
Adding vectors in magnitude and direction form | Vectors | Precalculus | Khan Academy
We’re told that vector A has magnitude 4 in direction 170 degrees from the positive x-axis. Vector B has magnitude 3 in direction 240 degrees from the positive x-axis. Find the magnitude and direction of vector A plus vector B. So pause this video and see…
Can causality be established from this study? | Study design | AP Statistics | Khan Academy
A gym that specializes in weight loss offers its members an optional dietary program for an extra fee. To study the effectiveness of the dietary program, a manager at the gym takes a random sample of 50 members who participate in the dietary program and 5…
How I handle crises.
Overnight cost two nights. I mean, we’re selling the plane. Here’s the day in my life handling crisis and unexpected challenges. I arrive at the office early to get a head start. My first task is ensuring everything is in order. During our morning briefi…
Weak acid–weak base reactions | Acids and bases | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy
Let’s say that HA represents a generic weak acid and B represents a generic weak base. If our weak acid donates a proton to our weak base, that would form A⁻ and HB⁺. To identify conjugate acid-base pairs, remember there’s only one proton, or one H⁺ diffe…