The Replication Argument for Incompatibilism

In this paper, I articulate an argument for incompatibilism about moral responsibility and determinism. My argument comes in the form of an extended story, modeled loosely on Peter van Inwagen’s “rollback argument” scenario. I thus call it “the replication argument.” As I aim to bring out, though the argument is inspired by so-called “manipulation” and “original design” arguments, the argument is not a version of either such argument—and plausibly has advantages over both. The result, I believe, is a more convincing incompatibilist argument than those we have considered previously

Free Will & Empirical Arguments for Epiphenomenalism

While philosophers have worried about mental causation for centuries, worries about the causal relevance of conscious phenomena are also increasingly featuring in neuroscientific literature. Neuroscientists have regarded the threat of epiphenomenalism as interesting primarily because they have supposed that it entails free will scepticism. However, the steps that get us from a premise about the causal irrelevance of conscious phenomena to a conclusion about free will are not entirely clear. In fact, if we examine popular philosophical accounts of free will, we find, for the most part, nothing to suggest that free will is inconsistent with the presence of unconscious neural precursors to choices. It is only if we adopt highly non-naturalistic assumptions about the mind (e.g. if we embrace Cartesian dualism and locate free choice in the non-physical realm) that it seems plausible to suppose that the neuroscientific data generates a threat to free will

Soy isoflavones and their relationship with microflora: beneficial effects on human health in equol producers

The bioavailability of soy isoflavones depends on the composition of the microflora for each subject. Bacteria act on different isoflavones with increased or reduced absorption and cause biotransformation of these compounds into metabolites with higher biological activity. S-equol is the most important metabolite and only 25–65 % of the population have the microflora that produces this compound. The presence of equol-producing bacteria in soy product consumers means that the consumption of such products for prolonged periods leads to lower cardiovascular risk, reduced incidence of prostate and breast cancer, and greater relief from symptoms related to the menopause such as hot flushes and osteoporosis