Supervenience, Reduction, and Translation

Dewar, Neil (2019): Supervenience, Reduction, and Translation. In: Philosophy of Science, Vol. 86, No. 5: pp. 942-954

Abstract

This article considers the following question: What is the relationship between supervenience and reduction? I investigate this formally: first, by introducing a recent argument by Christian List to the effect that one can have supervenience without reduction;then, by considering how the notion of Nagelian reduction can be related to the formal apparatus of definability and translation theory;then, by showing how, in the context of propositional theories, topological constraints on supervenience serve to enforce reducibility;and, finally, by showing how constraints derived from the theory of ultraproducts can enforce reducibility in the context of first-order theories.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 100 Philosophy
• ISSN: 0031-8248
• Language: English