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
The elements of a drama | Reading | Khan Academy
Hello readers! Today let us talk about drama. Enter stage right, and let us tread the boards together. Drama, also known as theater or plays, is a specialized kind of story that is meant to be performed. If you’ve ever seen a movie, a television show, or …
How to Land a Million Dollar Deal on Shark Tank Ask Mr. Wonderful #24 Kevin O'Leary & Anne Wojcicki
Hey, Mr. Wonderful here, but I’m in the kitchen, so we don’t need Mr. Wonderful; we need Chef Wonderful. How are we gonna get them? Eg, well, um, but there’s no Chef Wonderful. You know what? I want to talk about Mother’s Day. It’s coming up, and this ye…
Why Don't We Shoot Nuclear Waste Into Space?
Here in the Kotart Labs, we test very important ideas to see what happens when you blow things up or play with black holes. Many of you suggested that we look into an idea that sounds reasonable: shooting nuclear waste into space. It’s one of those concep…
Can Bitcoin Hit 100K? | Kitco Interview
There’s a lot of misinformation about the mining in Bitcoin. They are not going to buy Bitcoin until this ESG issue is resolved, period. Let me be very blunt about this: I would say right now less than one percent of global institutions and sovereign fund…
The Second Great Awakening - part 2
In the last video, I started discussing the Second Great Awakening, which was this era of increased religious fervor, religious conversion, and religiously inspired social action that happened in the early 19th century of the United States’ history. So ap…
Elliot Choy asks Ray Dalio about his early goals
Was was that first step for you? Do you recall kind of some of your early goals? Was it simply to find some level of success, some level of security? Do you remember what those first steps were for you? Well, it was, um, it was more a passion, you know? …