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Volume 108, Numbers 1-2, 39-51, DOI: 10.1023/A:1015755913389

Emergence, Supervenience, and Realization

Rex Welshon

From the issue entitled "Selected Papers Presented in 2001 at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association"

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Abstract

In the first section of this paper, I articulate Jaegwon Kim's argument against emergent down ward causation. In the second section, I canvas four responses to Kim's argument and argue that each fails. In the third section, I show that emergent downward causation does not, contra Kim, entail overdetermination. I argue that supervenience of emergent upon base properties is not sufficient for nomological causal relationsbetween emergent and base properties. What sustains Kim's argument is rather the claim that emergent properties realized by base properties can have no causal powers distinct from those base properties. I argue that this is false.

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