Location of possibilities

Possibilities of the Philosophy of History

Actual Possibilities

This is a philosophical ‘position paper’, starting from the observation that we have an intuitive grasp of a family of related concepts of “possibility”, “causation” and “constraint” which we often use in thinking about complex mechanisms, and perhaps also in perceptual processes, which according to Gibson are primarily concerned with detecting positive and negative affordances, such as support...

Biotransformations of rifamycins: process possibilities.

Rifampicin, an important antibiotic, is manufactured by chemical conversion of rifamycin S which is obtained by the chemical modification of rifamycin B. Rifamycin B is a product of Nocardia mediterranei fermentations. The chemical conversion of rifamycin B to rifamycin S has many disadvantages: Strong acidic conditions are required, heavy foam formation accompanies transformation and the yield...

Location, location, location...

Intra-abdominal fat is an established risk factor for the metabolic syndrome. In this issue of Cell Metabolism, Tran et al. (2008) test the cell-autonomous and location-related properties of transplanted intra-abdominal and subcutaneous fat depots. While subcutaneous fat seems to confer metabolic benefits, species differences in adipose biology justify caution in interpreting the results.

The Value of Unrealized Possibilities

In “Why Abortion is Immoral,” Don Marquis argues that a sufficient condition for the wrongness of killing an adult is the victim’s loss of a valuable future like ours. Our future is valuable because it is full of valuable possibilities. Because the wrongness of killing an adult is due to the privation of future possibilities, and fetuses have future possibilities, Marquis concludes that killing...