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
Monarch Migration and Metamorphosis | Incredible Animal Journeys | National Geographic
In Texas, the monarch is close to exhaustion. With her last reserves, she’s seeking out the perfect spot to lay her eggs. Using her amazing sense of smell, she’s on the hunt for milkweed, the only food her babies will eat. It’s a plant which was once abun…
VMware Cofounder Diane Greene with Jessica Livingston at the Female Founders Conference
Let’s, I’m going to stay here. Oh, okay, right there. Come over. Alright, well, we’ll just get into this because I have a whole list of questions and how many we’ll get through. So I’m going to selfishly ask a question because I’m very interested. When yo…
Introduction to currency exchange and trade | AP Macroeconomics | Khan Academy
What I want to do in this video is think about how exchange rates can affect trade, and actually we can even think a little bit about how they might be able to affect each other, although we’ll go into a lot more depth in that in future videos. So let’s …
Be a Loser if Need Be | The Philosophy of Epictetus
Is being a loser a bad thing? It depends on how you look at it. Stoic philosopher Epictetus said some valuable things about what we generally pursue in life. Achievements that today’s society views as hallmarks of success, like wealth and fame, Epictetus …
How I sold my first house at 19 for $3,550,000
So it took me about 10 months to sell my first house. 10 months. Well, honestly, I believe that after like month 8, I’m like, this is impossible! Like, how does anyone ever sell a house? I’ve been doing everything I can and I just can’t seem to get any re…
Raja Ampat: The Last Stronghold of Healthy Coral Reefs | National Geographic
Coral reefs are the rainforests of our ocean, supporting millions of marine species and human livelihoods. But according to UNESCO, they could collapse by as soon as 2100. Scientists have identified several super reefs that could withstand ocean warming a…