Supervenience

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A state in which the existence of one category of attributes is contingent upon the presence of another category of attributes
2. A relation where the emergence of certain features is contingent on the presence of additional features within a system
3. The condition where certain properties rely on the presence of other properties to exist

Etymology: Supervenience is a technical term from philosophy, and its story is mostly one of building blocks. It is formed from "supervenient", which itself comes from the Latin "supervenire", meaning to come upon or arrive in addition, with "super-" meaning "above" or "over" and "venire" meaning "to come". The English suffix "-ence" then turns the adjective into a noun naming the state or condition of that relationship. The core idea behind the word is that one level of properties arrives "on top of" another, so that nothing can differ at the higher level without some difference at the lower one. Mental states, for example, are often said to supervene on physical states of the brain. The word therefore carries the original Latin image of something coming upon something else, now applied to dependence between kinds of attributes rather than to events or visitors.

Synonyms: dependence, correlation, superiority, influence, priority

Antonyms: independence, autonomy, self-sufficiency, freedom, self-governance