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Philosophy of science, psychiatric classification, and the DSMIn Şerife Tekin & Robyn Bluhm (eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to Philosophy of Psychiatry, Bloomsbury. 2019.
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141Philosophy of Psychology and PsychiatryIn Flavia Padovani & Adam Tamas Tuboly (eds.), Handbook of the History of Philosophy of Science, Routledge. forthcoming.This chapter examines the history of philosophy of psychology and philosophy of psychiatry as subfields of philosophy of science that emerged in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. The chapter also surveys related literatures that developed in psychology and psychiatry. Philosophy of psychology (or philosophy of cognitive science) has been a well-established subfield of philosophy of mind since the 1990s and 2000s. This field of philosophy of psychology is narrowly focused on issu…Read more
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199The Contrast Class for Madness and Mental DisorderPhilosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 30 (4): 323-325. 2023.Commentary of Justin Garson, "Madness and idiocy: Reframing a basic problem of philosophy of psychiatry." Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology
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427The Ambiguous Legacy of Kuhn's Structure for Normative Philosophy of ScienceIn K. Brad Wray (ed.), Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions at 60, Cambridge University Press. pp. 217-234. 2024.This chapter examines the legacy of Kuhn’s Structure for normative philosophy of science. As an argument regarding the history of 20th century philosophy of science, I contend that the main legacy of Structure was destructive: Structure shifted philosophy of science away from addressing general normative philosophical issues (e.g., the demarcation problem, empirical testability) towards more deflationary and local approaches to normative issues. This is evident in the first generation of post-St…Read more
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3262Ethical Theory and TechnologyIn Gregory Robson & Jonathan Y. Tsou (eds.), Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings, Routledge. pp. 62-72. 2023.
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380Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings (edited book)Routledge. 2023.The first of its kind, this anthology in the burgeoning field of technology ethics offers students and other interested readers 32 chapters, each written in an accessible and lively manner specifically for this volume. The chapters are conveniently organized into five sections: I. Perspectives on Technology and its Value II. Technology and the Good Life III. Computer and Information Technology IV. Technology and Business V. Biotechnologies and Enhancement A hallmark of the volume is multidiscipl…Read more
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460Biological Essentialism, Projectable Human Kinds, and Psychiatric ClassificationPhilosophy of Science 89 (5): 1155-1165. 2022.A minimal essentialism (‘intrinsic biological essentialism’) about natural kinds is required to explain the projectability of human science terms. Human classifications that yield robust and ampliative projectable inferences refer to biological kinds. I articulate this argument with reference to an intrinsic essentialist account of HPC kinds. This account implies that human sciences (e.g., medicine, psychiatry) that aim to formulate predictive kind categories should classify biological kinds. Is…Read more
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701Philosophical Naturalism and Empirical Approaches to PhilosophyIn Marcus Rossberg (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Analytic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. forthcoming.This chapter examines the influence of the empirical sciences (e.g., physics, biology, psychology) in contemporary analytic philosophy, with focus on philosophical theories that are guided by findings from the empirical sciences. Scientific approaches to philosophy follow a tradition of philosophical naturalism associated with Quine, which strives to ally philosophical methods and theories more closely with the empirical sciences and away from a priori theorizing and conceptual analysis.
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859Function, Dysfunction, and the Concept of Mental DisorderPhilosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 28 (4): 371-375. 2021.Naturalistic accounts of mental disorder aim to identify an objective basis for attributions of mental disorder. This goal is important for demarcating genuine mental disorders from artificial or socially constructed disorders. The articulation of a demarcation criterion provides a means for assuring that attributions of 'mental disorder' are not merely pathologizing different forms of social deviance. The most influential naturalistic and hybrid definitions of mental disorder identify biologica…Read more
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1018Philosophy of PsychiatryCambridge University Press. 2021.Jonathan Y. Tsou examines and defends positions on central issues in philosophy of psychiatry. The positions defended assume a naturalistic and realist perspective and are framed against skeptical perspectives on biological psychiatry. Issues addressed include the reality of mental disorders; mechanistic and disease explanations of abnormal behavior; definitions of mental disorder; natural and artificial kinds in psychiatry; biological essentialism and the projectability of psychiatric categorie…Read more
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428Social Construction, HPC Kinds, and the Projectability of Human CategoriesPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 50 (2): 115-137. 2020.This paper addresses the question of how human science categories yield projectable inferences by critically examining Ron Mallon’s ‘social role’ account of human kinds. Mallon contends that human categories are projectable when a social role produces a homeostatic property cluster (HPC) kind. On this account, human categories are projectable when various social mechanisms stabilize and entrench those categories. Mallon’s analysis obscures a distinction between transitory and robust projectable …Read more
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43Reviews (review)Philosophical Psychology 21 (1). 2008.Seeing, Doing, and Knowing: A Philosophical Theory of Sense Perception MOHAN MATTHEN New York, Oxford University Press, 2007384 pages, ISBN: 0199204284 (pbk); $35.00Mohan Matthen's Seeing, Doing an...
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138A Role for Reason in ScienceDialogue 42 (3): 573-598. 2003.Michael Friedman’s Dynamics of Reason is a welcome contribution to the ongoing articulation of philosophical perspectives for understanding the sciences in the context of post-positivist philosophy of science. Two perspectives that have gained advocacy since the demise of the “received view” are Quinean naturalism and Kuhnian relativism. In his 1999 Stanford lectures, Friedman articulates and defends a neo-Kantian perspective for philosophy of science that opposes both of these perspectives. His…Read more
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698Philosophy of Science, Psychiatric Classification, and the DSMIn Bluhm Robyn & Tekin Serife (eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Psychiatry, Bloomsbury. pp. 177-196. 2019.This chapter examines philosophical issues surrounding the classification of mental disorders by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). In particular, the chapter focuses on issues concerning the relative merits of descriptive versus theoretical approaches to psychiatric classification and whether the DSM should classify natural kinds. These issues are presented with reference to the history of the DSM, which has been published regularly by the American Psychiatric Asso…Read more
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227The social construction of real human kinds: Ron Mallon: The construction of human kinds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, 250 pp, $50.00 HB (review)Metascience 26 (3): 467-470. 2017.
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13Gary L. Hardcastle and Alan W. Richardson , Logical Empiricism in North America. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 18. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press , 293 pp., $49.95 (review)Philosophy of Science 72 (4): 634-637. 2005.
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311Pharmacological Interventions and the Neurobiological Basis of Mental DisordersIn Ioan Opris & Manuel F. Casanova (eds.), The Physics of the Mind and Brain Disorders: Integrated Neural Circuits Supporting the Emergence of Mind, Springer. pp. 613-628. 2017.In psychiatry, pharmacological research has played a crucial role in the formulation, revision, and refinement of neurobiological theories of psychopathology. Besides being utilized as potential treatments for various mental disorders, pharmacological drugs play an important epistemic role as experimental instruments that help scientists uncover the neurobiological underpinnings of mental disorders (Tsou, 2012). Interventions with psychiatric patients using pharmacological drugs provide research…Read more
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871The 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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55Review 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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672Genetic Epistemology and Piaget's Philosophy of Science: Piaget vs. Kuhn on Scientific ProgressTheory and Psychology 16 (2): 203-224. 2006.This paper concerns Jean Piaget's (1896–1980) philosophy of science and, in particular, the picture of scientific development suggested by his theory of genetic epistemology. The aims of the paper are threefold: (1) to examine genetic epistemology as a theory concerning the growth of knowledge both in the individual and in science; (2) to explicate Piaget's view of ‘scientific progress’, which is grounded in his theory of equilibration; and (3) to juxtapose Piaget's notion of progress with Tho…Read more
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663Depression and Suicide are Natural Kinds: Implications for Physician-Assisted SuicideInternational Journal of Law and Psychiatry 36 (5-6): 461-470. 2013.In this article, I argue that depression and suicide are natural kinds insofar as they are classes of abnormal behavior underwritten by sets of stable biological mechanisms. In particular, depression and suicide are neurobiological kinds characterized by disturbances in serotonin functioning that affect various brain areas (i.e., the amygdala, anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus). The significance of this argument is that the natural (biological) basis of depression and suicid…Read more
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82Review of Rachel Cooper, Classifying Madness (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 61 (2): 453-457. 2010.
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722Origins of the Qualitative Aspects of Consciousness: Evolutionary Answers to Chalmers' Hard ProblemIn Liz Swan (ed.), Origins of Mind, Springer. pp. 259--269. 2012.According to David Chalmers, the hard problem of consciousness consists of explaining how and why qualitative experience arises from physical states. Moreover, Chalmers argues that materialist and reductive explanations of mentality are incapable of addressing the hard problem. In this chapter, I suggest that Chalmers’ hard problem can be usefully distinguished into a ‘how question’ and ‘why question,’ and I argue that evolutionary biology has the resources to address the question of why qualita…Read more
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450The justification of concepts in Carnap's aufbauPhilosophy of Science 70 (4): 671-689. 2003.This paper concerns the recent debate on the nature and motivations of the epistemological project advanced in Rudolf Carnap's (1891-1970) Aufbau. Much of this debate has been initiated by Michael Friedman and Alan Richardson who argue (against the received view of the Aufbau as a foundationalist defense of empiricism) that Carnap's epistemological project is located in the tradition of neo-Kantian epistemology. On this revisionist reading of the Aufbau, Carnap's project is not motivated to addr…Read more
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62Review of George A. Reisch, How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science. (review)British Journal for the History of Science 40 (1): 153-155. 2007.
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344Hacking on the looping effects of psychiatric classifications: What is an interactive and indifferent kind?International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 21 (3). 2007.This paper examines Ian Hacking's analysis of the looping effects of psychiatric classifications, focusing on his recent account of interactive and indifferent kinds. After explicating Hacking's distinction between 'interactive kinds' (human kinds) and 'indifferent kinds' (natural kinds), I argue that Hacking cannot claim that there are 'interactive and indifferent kinds,' given the way that he introduces the interactive-indifferent distinction. Hacking is also ambiguous on whether his notion of…Read more
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574Reconsidering the Carnap-Kuhn ConnectionIn William J. Devlin & Alisa Bokulich (eds.), Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions - 50 Years On, Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, Vol. 311. Springer. 2015.Recently, some philosophers of science (e.g., Gürol Irzik, Michael Friedman) have challenged the ‘received view’ on the relationship between Rudolf Carnap and Thomas Kuhn, suggesting that there is a close affinity (rather than opposition) between their philosophical views. In support of this argument, these authors cite Carnap and Kuhn’s similar views on incommensurability, theory-choice, and scientific revolutions. Against this revisionist view, I argue that the philosophical relationship betwe…Read more
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