supervenience
n. in philosophy, the condition in which a higher level property of something is inseparable from the lower level constituents of that thing, such that change in this property only occurs when the lower level constituents change. The term is usually used in a materialist sense to refer to the idea that conscious experience (i.e., a higher level property of the brain) supervenes on—that is, it is entirely dependent on—neural processes (lower level properties of the brain). —supervene
vb.
—supervenient
adj.