Goodbye, Humean Supervenience

Abstract

Humean supervenience, at least in its familiar Lewisian guise, harbors an internal inconsistency. Suppose that: (1) fundamental properties are categorical; (2) fundamental properties endow objects with different dispositions in different possible worlds; and (3) properties are individuated by sets of their possible instances. This chapter demonstrates that if (2) is true, then every fundamental property necessarily correlates with a unique disposition. Therefore, by (3), every fundamental property is identical to a disposition, contrary to (1). This inconsistency can be resolved only by acknowledging the dispositionality of fundamental properties, abandoning realism about dispositions, or allowing for the hyperintensional individuation of properties.