Supervenience & Emergentism: A Critical Study in Philosophy of Mind

The paper intends to clarify whether the supervenience theory of mind, with special reference to Kim, can be identified with the emergence theory of mind. Kim’s thesis admits that the mental properties are in some sense dependent on the physical properties. Such supervenience might be understood to mean that there cannot be two events alike in all physical respects, i.e. an object cannot alter in some mental respect without altering in the physical respect. My aim in this paper is to clarify that the emergence theory of mind is not identical with the supervenience theory of mind, because emergentism is a non-material theory of mind. This theory maintains that mind or consciousness emerges from material object, but it will not be reducible to that matter. Thus, emergentism is an anti-reductionists theory of mind; and at the same time, it establishes a new order of existence with its special laws of qualities.