This chapter analyses in detail the major part of Socrates’ long and complex discussion with Critias about the nature of temperance. Central to the discussion is Critias’ proposal that temperance is knowing oneself. It is argued that this discussion brings out several important ways in which Socrates and Critias differ from one another. One is in their respective attitudes towards interpretation: while Socrates is negligent of interpreting the words of others, Critias shows a keen interest in the interpretation of texts. A second difference is in the pair’s conception of self-knowledge. It is argued that Critias’ conception is based on what I call a social authority model, while Socrates’ is based on what I call a reflective model. It is shown that, despite the heavily aporetic nature of the discussion, a substantive conception of temperance can be gleaned from critical engagement with that discussion.

This chapter develops in detail a conception of temperance, based on a critical engagement with the dialogue’s resources, which I dub temperance as self-realisation. I explore how this conception is modelled in the dialogue, with particular reference to Socrates’ own procedure as depicted therein. The model enables us to address questions of Socrates’ own relation to temperance, and of how temperance can be regarded as of benefit on this conception. Emphasis is placed on the exercise of temperance as a continuous process and to that extent on self-realisation as something that is necessarily imperfectible. However, it is argued that this makes sense both of the status of temperance as a branch of practical knowledge and of its ability to characterise a whole life.

This chapter goes over the decision to purchase health insurance (or not). The way information is presented to individuals has a significant impact on their decision to purchase insurance to protect themselves from the financial consequences of health risks. Eliminating minor inconvenience costs or simplifying the insurance selection process can influence whether or not people purchase insurance. This chapter examines the roles of adverse selection and moral hazard in insurance-related behaviour, as well as the barriers to insurance uptake for individuals ranging from affordability to unobservable quality and information/choice overload. The chapter investigates the role of various nudges in increasing health insurance uptake.

This chapter shows how competing notions of care shape ethical, political, and amorous life in Shakespearean drama. If care is a virtue, it seems unique among other classically recognized virtues such as courage, justice, and temperance, in that care is more ubiquitous as a feature of normative life and yet less conceptually distinct. While sometimes appearing as a virtue in itself — or as a precondition to the sharpening of any particular virtue — care just as often shows up in Shakespeare’s plays as a demanding expenditure of psychosomatic energies that shades into anxious worry or self-consuming attachments. This chapter in turn illustrates how ancient Greek and Roman virtue ethics inform Shakespeare’s articulations of care as an innate and omnipresent facet of human experience, which can benefit self and others but in its extreme forms also weigh upon body and soul to cause harm. Despite cultivating skepticism concerning our human abilities to know and to exercise the virtues of care, Shakespearean drama also stages encounters with care in its rarest guise: as a benefit that alleviates forms of suffering or distress to which human life is invariably susceptible, and which cultivates our capacities for virtue.

Graeme Laurie stepped down from the Chair in Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh in 2019. This edited collection pays tribute to his extraordinary contributions to the field. Graeme has often spoken about the importance of ‘legacy’ in academic work and has forged a remarkable intellectual legacy of his own, notably through his work on genetic privacy, human tissue and information governance, and the regulatory salience of the concept of liminality. The chapters in this volume animate the concept of legacy as a lens of analysis for the study and practice of medical jurisprudence. In this light, legacy reveals characteristics of both benefit and burden, as both a facilitator of and an encumbrance to the development of law, policy and regulation. Overall, the contributions reconcile the ideas of legacy and responsiveness and show that both dimensions are critical to achieve and sustain the health of medical jurisprudence itself as a dynamic, interdisciplinary and policy-engaged field of thinking.

In the Gorgias, Socrates famously declares that he is alone among contemporary Athenians in taking up the “true craft of politics.” But the claim is extremely puzzling, since Socrates also claims to be ignorant and lacking in any significant wisdom of any kind. Crafts, for Socrates, involve cognitive achievement. But Socrates declares that he has accomplished little of such achievement. Shows how the model of craft-knowledge can resolve this paradox by allowing Socrates to regard taking up the craft of politics as an attempt to improve his ability in achieving the goals of that craft: benefiting others. Shows how Plato’s early dialogues give abundant evidence of Socrates’ activities in both of what he characterizes as the branches of politics: legislation and correction.

Research showed that the interlanguage-speech intelligibility benefit (ISIB) effect progressively disappeared in Chinese speakers of English as their English proficiency increased and their exposure to Chinese-accented English decreased. As a result, ISIB effects were obvious in less proficient speakers. We explore the hypothesis that ISIB is still present in proficient L2 English speakers when tasks go beyond sound transcription and relate intelligibility to more complex sound-meaning mappings. Results showed that, in general, native English speakers outperformed Chinese speakers of English showing no evidence of an overall ISIB effect despite that Chinese speakers of English rated Chinese-accented sentences as more comprehensible. Only in the compound vs noun contrasts (e.g., ‘bluebird’ vs. ‘blue bird’), Chinese speakers of English outperformed native English speakers in the Chinese-accented stimuli, showing a mild ISIB-L effect. This modest evidence in support of ISIB encourages further exploration on aspects of sound perception that could affect ISIB in proficient L2 speakers.

As a general rule once a trust is fully constituted the terms are binding on the trustees and the provisions of the trust must be carried out. Occasinally where circumstances have changed there is scope to vary the trust usually in the event of an unforeseen event arising. This chapter examines when the terms of a trust can be varied. The court holds inherent jurisdiction to vary the trust in certain circumstances but the jurisdiction is limited. There are several statutory provisions that give the court jurisdiction to vary a trust but the statute with the widest range of powers is the Variation of Trusts Act 1958. Under the Act the court can authorise a variation on behalf of a range of beneficiaries including any person with an interest both vested and contingent and who by reason of infancy or incapacity is incapable of assenting. It also includes a category of beneficairies who may become entitled if certain events occur in the future. Exercise of the jurisdiction depends on whether it is for the benefit of the beneficiaries and this is dependent on whether a benefit can be shown both financial and non-financial. The jurisidiction is very wide but cannot be exercised if the court believes there is a resettlement as opposed to a variation.

Ballad opera flourished in the 1730s and was one of the most profitable forms of theatrical entertainment in Britain. Significantly, over a quarter of all recorded ballad operas were premiered at benefit performances in London theatres, making a direct link between the benefits and the development of this extremely influential genre. This chapter utilizes advertisements for the benefit performances as well as the texts and music of ballad operas themselves in order to find out more about these important premieres. We shall see that benefit performances drove the development of ballad opera, whether by initiating experimental works by new authors, prompting a musical revision of an older repertory piece (as in the case of Flora), or by encouraging a performer to try out a new character type or singing role (as with the frequent benefit revivals of The Beggar’s Opera). This chapter argues that the benefit performances occupied a central role in the development of ballad opera and helped to craft the genre that dominated British stages for the second quarter of the century.

The music-theatrical benefit is an open acknowledgement of the role that audiences play in the economy of the musical and theatrical worlds. Ostensibly put on as a means to provide performers or other playhouse personnel with a direct reward from audiences, the occasions also serve as a means for performers to reward audiences for their attentiveness, fidelity, and participation throughout the season. To conceive of benefits without audiences is as impossible as it is to conceive of them without performers. As part of the panoply of patronal relationships common before and during the long eighteenth century, the benefit is still with us and plays the same role, notwithstanding the variety of ways in which we chose to cloak it these days. By examining the structure of who, when, where, how much, and how often, through examination of original archival materials, published correspondence, commentary in the London Stage volumes, and other sources, including both straightforward and satirical portrayals in poems, novels, plays, and cartoons, I examine the ecology of the benefit to reveal its extent, its boundaries, and its value.

This article examines the contribution the Mercer’s Hospital charity services made to musical life in eighteenth-century Dublin, contextualizing how this activity reflects aspects of Dublin’s wider social and cultural life during this period. The extent to which the Mercer’s charity services reflect benefit performances in eighteenth-century Ireland and Britain will be established, before the discussion turns to an exploration of the performing network. Mercer’s Hospital was one of several voluntary hospitals established during the eighteenth-century, its governors, dominated by the Anglo-Irish elite, possessing established connections with musical, social, and religious organizations in Dublin, provincial Ireland, and London. Mercer’s governors were part of a wider network of amateur musicians who through their patronage of the arts enabled Dublin to sustain an intense level of musical activity for much of the eighteenth century. Works by Handel dominated programming, thus demonstrating the preference for music in the Italian style and the desire to identify with London tastes, illustrating the strong cultural connections between Ireland and Britain.