What Do Powers Do When They Are Not Manifested?*

In the present paper, I offer a conceptual argument against the view that all properties are pure powers. I claim that thinking of all properties as pure powers leads to a regress. The regress, I argue, can be solved only if non‐powers are admitted. The kernel of my thesis is that any attempt to answer the title question in an informative way will undermine a pure‐power view of properties. In particular, I focus my critique on recent arguments in favour of pure powers by the Late George Molnar and Jennifer McKitrick. The lines of defence of the friends of powers converge on what I call ‘the ultimate argument for powers’, viz., that current physics entails (or supports) the view that the fundamental properties (spin, mass, charge) are ungrounded powers. I take issue with this argument and make a modest suggestion: that the evidence from current physics is inconclusive.     

Plotinus’ Account of the Cognitive Powers of the Soul: Sense Perception and Discursive Thought

This paper focuses on Plotinus?? account of the soul??s cognitive powers of sense perception and discursive thought, with particular reference to the treatises 3. 6 [26], 4. 4 [28] and 5. 3 [49] of the Enneads. Part 1 of the paper discusses Plotinus?? direct realism in perception. Parts 2 and 3 focus on Plotinus?? account of knowledge in Enneads 5. 3 [49] 2?C3. Plotinus there argues that we make judgements regarding how the external world is by means of discursive reasoning. This latter claim, however, is in tension with what Plotinus argues elsewhere regarding our perceptual apprehension of the external world (3. 6 [26] 1; 4. 4 [28] 23). This puzzle is addressed in Part 3 of the paper, which investigates Plotinus?? view that there exist some sense perceptions of which we are unaware. Finally, Part 4 looks at Plotinus?? understanding of Plato??s famous wax block analogy, in 5. 3 (49). The overall conclusion of the paper is that Plotinus?? account of knowledge is radically different from that of the Cartesian tradition.     

“Higher Powers and Infernal Regions”: Models of Mind in Freud's Interpretation of Dreams and Contemporary Psychoanalysis,and Their Implications for Pastoral Theology

Freud's topographical model of conscious and unconscious had a powerful early influence on pastoral psychology. The hegemony of this so-called depth-oriented repression model is being challenged on a number of fronts. The increasing recognition of the mutability of memory, and the politicization of repressed memory has called the idea of the repression barrier under scrutiny. Psychoanalytic thinkers and neurobiologists are separately rejecting the concept of repression in favor of dissociative processes and multiple mental states. Postmodernists question the notion of unitary self. This article explores the importance of these critiques for theological anthropology, and suggests their implications toward a new, more multiple and mutable imago Dei. The article concludes with implications of the new models of mind, emphasizing dissociation and multiplicity, toward a constructivist, intersubjective view of meaning-making in pastoral praxis.