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1441DSM-5 and Psychiatry's Second Revolution: Descriptive vs. Theoretical Approaches to Psychiatric ClassificationIn Steeves Demazeux & Patrick Singy (eds.), The DSM-5 in Perspective: Philosophical Reflections on the Psychiatric Babel, Springer. pp. 43-62. 2015.A large part of the controversy surrounding the publication of DSM-5 stems from the possibility of replacing the purely descriptive approach to classification favored by the DSM since 1980. This paper examines the question of how mental disorders should be classified, focusing on the issue of whether the DSM should adopt a purely descriptive or theoretical approach. I argue that the DSM should replace its purely descriptive approach with a theoretical approach that integrates causal information …Read more
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296The Reality and Classification of Mental DisordersDissertation, University of Chicago. 2008.This dissertation examines psychiatry from a philosophy of science perspective, focusing on issues of realism and classification. Questions addressed in the dissertation include: What evidence is there for the reality of mental disorders? Are any mental disorders natural kinds? When are disease explanations of abnormality warranted? How should mental disorders be classified? In addressing issues concerning the reality of mental disorders, I draw on the accounts of realism defended by Ian Hackin…Read more
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223Review of Gary L. Hardcastle & Alan W. Richardson (Eds.), Logical Empiricism in North America. (review)Philosophy of Science 72 (4): 153-155. 2005.An essential overview of this important intellectual movement. This latest volume in the longest-standing and most influential series in the field of the philosophy of science extends and expands on the discipline's recent historical turn. These essays take up the historical, sociological, and philosophical questions surrounding the particular intellectual movement of logical empiricism--both its emigration from Europe to North America in the 1930s and 1940s and its development in North America …Read more
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1392Intervention, Causal Reasoning, and the Neurobiology of Mental Disorders: Pharmacological Drugs as Experimental InstrumentsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43 (2): 542-551. 2012.In psychiatry, pharmacological drugs play an important experimental role in attempts to identify the neurobiological causes of mental disorders. Besides being developed in applied contexts as potential treatments for patients with mental disorders, pharmacological drugs play a crucial role in research contexts as experimental instruments that facilitate the formulation and revision of neurobiological theories of psychopathology. This paper examines the various epistemic functions that pharmacolo…Read more
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48Introduction: Objectivity in ScienceIn Flavia Padovani, Alan Richardson & Jonathan Y. Tsou (eds.), Objectivity in Science: New Perspectives From Science and Technology Studies, Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, Vol. 310. Springer. pp. 1-15. 2015.
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216Reconsidering Feyerabend’s “Anarchism‘Perspectives on Science 11 (2): 208-235. 2003.This paper explores Paul Feyerabend's (1924-1994) skeptical arguments for "anarchism" in his early writings between 1960 to 1975. Feyerabend's position is encapsulated by his well-known suggestion that the only principle for scientific method that can be defended under all circumstances is: "anything goes." I present Feyerabend's anarchism as a recommendation for pluralism that assumes a realist view of scientific theories. The aims of this paper are threefold: (1) to present a defensible view o…Read more
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98Distinguishing Non-Conceptual Content from Non-Syntactic Propositions: Comment on FullerSouthwest Philosophy Review 28 (2): 53-57. 2012.In this paper I argue that a principal argument in favor of the existence of non-conceptual content (henceforth NCC) fails. That is, I do not accept that considerations regarding the richness of our perceptual experiences support the existence of NCC. I argue instead that the existence of NCC is empirically motivated. Here is an outline of the paper. First, I set out the distinction between conceptual content and NCC as we understand it. Second, I consider the richness argument (RA), and argue t…Read more
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38Rationality and compulsion: Applying action theory to psychiatry – by Lennart Nordenfelt (review)Journal of Applied Philosophy 26 (4): 415-418. 2009.No Abstract
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927Natural Kinds, Psychiatric Classification and the History of the DSMHistory of Psychiatry 27 (4): 406-424. 2016.This paper addresses philosophical issues concerning whether mental disorders are natural kinds and how the DSM should classify mental disorders. I argue that some mental disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, depression) are natural kinds in the sense that they are natural classes constituted by a set of stable biological mechanisms. I subsequently argue that a theoretical and causal approach to classification would provide a superior method for classifying natural kinds than the purely descriptive …Read more
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416Objectivity in Science: New Perspectives From Science and Technology Studies (edited book)Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol. 310. Springer. 2015.This highly multidisciplinary collection discusses an increasingly important topic among scholars in science and technology studies: objectivity in science. It features eleven essays on scientific objectivity from a variety of perspectives, including philosophy of science, history of science, and feminist philosophy. Topics addressed in the book include the nature and value of scientific objectivity, the history of objectivity, and objectivity in scientific journals and communities. Taken indivi…Read more
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907The Importance of History for Philosophy of Psychiatry: The Case of the DSM and Psychiatric ClassificationJournal of the Philosophy of History 5 (3): 446-470. 2011.Abstract Recently, some philosophers of psychiatry (viz., Rachel Cooper and Dominic Murphy) have analyzed the issue of psychiatric classification. This paper expands upon these analyses and seeks to demonstrate that a consideration of the history of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) can provide a rich and informative philosophical perspective for critically examining the issue of psychiatric classification. This case is intended to demonstrate the importance of hist…Read more
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57Review of Michael Heidelberger & Friedrich Stadler (Eds.), History of Philosophy of Science. (review)British Journal for the History of Science 38 (3): 355-356. 2005.
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