Abstract:

While the philosophy of medicine has seen extensive discussions focusing on the concepts of health disease,and dysfunction,the exact content of these concepts remains. In this talk, we will report some results from a series of experimental philosophy studies which aimed to examine how people understand and deploy these concepts, and the factors that influence their judgments. We will then discuss the implications that these findings carry for philosophical debates and for health-related communication in both clinical and public health settings.

Speakers:

Somogy Varga is professor of philosophy at Aarhus University and director of the Center for Philosophy and the Health Sciences. His current research is mostly concerned with topics in the philosophy of science, psychiatry, and medicine. He is the author of four books: Science, Medicine, and the Aims of Inquiry (Cambridge University Press, in press), Scaffolded Minds (MIT Press, 2019), Naturalism, Interpretation and Mental Disorder (Oxford University Press, 2015), and Authenticity as an Ethical Ideal (Routledge, 2011). Some of his research papers were published in leading medical/psychological journals (e.g., Psychological Review, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews), others in philosophical journals (e.g., PPR, AJP).

Andrew J. Latham is an AIAS-PIREAU research fellow at Aarhus University. He works at the intersection of metaphysics, ethics and cognitive science and is interested in what empirical discoveries, particularly in the psychological and brain sciences, reveal about the nature of phenomena. Andrew has authored many papers in experimental philosophy, with many of them being published in leading philosophy journals (i.e., Noûs, Journal of Philosophy, and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research). He was recently awarded both a Marie Curie European Postdoctoral Fellowship and Discovery Early Career Research Award.

Coffee, tea, cake and fruit will be served before the colloquium @ 2 pm.