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RE: Supervenience, Transcendence, and Mind
September 15, 2014 at 7:45 pm
(September 15, 2014 at 12:15 am)Surgenator Wrote: (September 8, 2014 at 7:42 pm)bennyboy Wrote: Trans = across, beyond
Scend = climb
My point is that supervened properties have a reality unique to the mechanism on which they supervene, i.e. they go beyond those mechanisms. I couldn't think of a more perfect word to express my idea.
I don't think they go beyond anything or climb anywhere. It's just that there is multiple ways of getting the samething. For example, I can drive multiple routes to Las Vegas. That doesn't mean Las Vegas is some transcended place.
If you want to a better word, how about pluraemanio.
plura = many
emanio = to flow out, spread / arise, emanate, originate.
And yes, I did just make it up. However, I provided the definition. Hmmmm Latin in philosophy seems wrong. Can you do it in Greek, please? 
Also, I think you're equivocating on meanings of transcendent. Please stick only to my equivocation!
When I say the mind is transcendent, I mean that it is free from the limitations of the mechanism on which it supervenes. To see it more clearly, how dependent is human nature on the fact that we are made up of carbon and water? You could argue that we are completely dependent on our component parts, but my position is that this misses the essence of what we really are: a collection of memories, comparators of events and perceptions, beings with the capacity to feel, etc.
What if we found a lifeform made of different stuff, but which acted in a motivated way: showed feelings, formed and acted on theories about its environment, etc? Would you argue that it was essentially similar or dissimilar to people? I'd say it's similar, because the defining factor of life ultimately has little to do with the specific mechanism on which it supervenes. Once a thing becomes conscious, there's an inversion-- the consciousness is now using the brain as an interface between ideas, feelings, etc. and the universe.
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RE: Supervenience, Transcendence, and Mind
September 15, 2014 at 7:50 pm
(This post was last modified: September 15, 2014 at 7:51 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Is it free from those limitations? Doesn't seem to be.
Quote:To see it more clearly, how dependent is human nature on the fact that we are made up of carbon and water?
Um...extremely....
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RE: Supervenience, Transcendence, and Mind
September 15, 2014 at 8:59 pm
(September 15, 2014 at 7:45 pm)bennyboy Wrote: (September 15, 2014 at 12:15 am)Surgenator Wrote: I don't think they go beyond anything or climb anywhere. It's just that there is multiple ways of getting the samething. For example, I can drive multiple routes to Las Vegas. That doesn't mean Las Vegas is some transcended place.
If you want to a better word, how about pluraemanio.
plura = many
emanio = to flow out, spread / arise, emanate, originate.
And yes, I did just make it up. However, I provided the definition. Hmmmm Latin in philosophy seems wrong. Can you do it in Greek, please?
Also, I think you're equivocating on meanings of transcendent. Please stick only to my equivocation!
When I say the mind is transcendent, I mean that it is free from the limitations of the mechanism on which it supervenes. I'm taking the greek roots that you provided for the word transcendence, and interpreting from there. My interpretation of your use of transcendence is the effect or thing is free from its origin. What I'm saying it is not free. There are multiple ways to get the same thing or reach the same effect. That doesn't mean anything is free from its origins, but that it has multiple possible origins. It is pluraemanio or the more common phrase, "there is more than one way to skin a cat."
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