How can mental properties bring about physical effects, as they seem to do, given that the physical realizers of the mental goings-on are already sufficient to cause these effects? This question gives rise to the problem of mental causation (MC) and its associated threats of causal overdetermination, mental causal exclusion, and mental causal irrelevance. Some (e.g., Cynthia and Graham Macdonald, and Stephen Yablo) have suggested that understanding mental-physical realization in terms of the determinable/determinate relation (henceforth, 'determination') provides the key to (...) solving the problem of MC: if mental properties are determinables of their physical realizers, then (since determinables and determinates are distinct, yet don't causally compete) all three threats may be avoided. Not everyone agrees that determination can do this good work, however. Some (e.g., Douglas Ehring, Eric Funkhauser, and Sven Walter) object that mental-physical realization can't be determination, since such realization lacks one or other characteristic feature of determination. I argue that on a proper understanding of the features of determination key to solving the problem of MC these arguments can be resisted. (shrink)

Traditionally, plant viruses are viewed as harmful, undesirable pathogens. However, their genomes can provide several useful ‘designer functions’ or ‘sequence modules’ with which to tailor future gene vectors for plant or general biotechnology.The majority (77 %) of known plant viruses have single‐stranded RNA of the messenger (protein coding) sense as their genetic material. Over the past 4 years, improved in vitro transcription systems and the construction of partial of fulllength DNA copies of several plant RNA viruses have enhanced our ability (...) to manipulate and study their genomes, particularly in the context of their pathogenic interactions with host plants.Recently, two forms of genetically engineered protection against plant virus infections have been reported. In both, a virus‐related ‘interfering’ molecule was stably introduced into plants via the DNA‐transfer mechanism of Agro‐bacterium tumefaciens. To date, the choice of ‘interfering’ molecule has been guided by empirical field‐observations and each is effective against only a narrow range of closely‐related viruses. As yet, we do not fully understand the molecular mechanism(s) responsible for the observed protection.The ability to manipulate the plant–pathogen relationship is a powerful tool to increase our knowledge and improve future strategies for uncoventional cropprotection by genetic engineering techniques. (shrink)

This book unfolds a vision for philosophical theology centered on the practices of the care of the self, the city, and creation. Rooted in Paul’s articulation of the wisdom of the cross, and in conversation with ecological, radical, and political theologies; continental philosophy; and political ecology, it addresses the challenge of injustice and ecological catastrophe. Part one reads 1 Corinthians as an exercise in reading and writing that shapes and changes relationships and capabilities. Part two follows this alternative path for (...) theology through Derrida and Kierkegaard, and neglected trajectories in Origen, Augustine, and Luther. Along the way, reading and writing are explored as exercises that transform selves, communities, and even habitats. They are creaturely acts that can scandalize the dominant orders of consumption and competition for the ends of love and justice. This is a philosophical theology engaged with political ecology, exercises that help cultivate new creation. (shrink)

Schmid divides the book into five main discussions: the historical background of the dialogue; the relation of form and content in a Platonic dialogue and specific structural and aesthetic features of the Laches; the first half of the ...

Informed consent needs to be practised within a culture of openness if it is to enhance public trust in medical procedures around death. Openness should entail patients not just receiving information from doctors, but also having the right to see certain medical procedures. This article proposes in particular that it would be desirable for the public to be allowed to attend an autopsy of a person they do not know. Evidence from the UK, where members of the public may go (...) backstage to witness the process of cremation, the other technical process in which dead bodies are violently but legitimately assaulted, suggests benefits from a policy of openness. When a family consents to cremation in Britain, their consent is only minimally informed, but the system has nothing to hide, and trust is high. This suggests that the opportunity for lay people also to witness certain medical procedures might do more to restore public trust in medical procedures around death than a narrow interpretation of informed consent in which information is controlled by the profession. (shrink)

This essay argues for a formative, and not simply abstract, aspect to the philosophy of religion by attending to the practices of writing employed in Søren Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous work Repetition . By locating this text within an ethical tradition that focuses upon the practices that form subjects, rather than simply the formulation of a theory, its seemingly literary performances can be viewed as exercises. In particular, this text deploys and transforms the Stoic practices of self writing, in the form of (...) keeping notebooks and letter writing, so as to cultivate capabilities. This indirect ethical instruction does not, however, lead to the formation of autonomous ethical subjects, but to the cultivation of capabilities that are only possible in the relational space of vulnerability, service and dependence. (shrink)

La sensatez o moderación (sophrosyne/σωφροσύνη) es un tema central que atraviesa diversos diálogos de Platón, en los cuales esta virtud se presenta en relación con el amor (erôs), el conocimiento de sí y la política. Esta virtud es abordada por Walter T. Schmid en su artículo “Socratic Moderation and Self-Knowledge”, publicado en el volumen 21 del Journal of The History of Philosophy, como resultado del seminario The Philosophy of Sócrates, organizado en 1981 por Gregory Vlastos, explorando la exposición del (...) término sophrosyne no solo en el Cármides, sino a través de distintos diálogos (Apología, Laques, Sofista). (shrink)