Brain dysfunction without function

Philosophical Psychology 1 (3):570-582 (2023)
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Abstract

In an important and timely book, Anneli Jefferson outlines a view according to which a given mental disorder is a brain disorder if it is a (harmful) mental dysfunction realised by a brain dysfunction. Prima facie, Jefferson’s book is a study in the metaphysics of dysfunction: how does mental dysfunction relate to brain dysfunction, and what does this imply for the status of mental disorders and brain disorders? In what follows, I shall argue that Jefferson’s contribution to this debate is better understood as a conceptual explication of how psychiatrists, some philosophers, scientists and clinicians in the field (broadly construed) think of the label ‘brain disorder’. I infer this on the basis that Jefferson’s thesis would not follow from any serious, well-worked out theory of proper function. Despite initial appearances, Jefferson’s book about brain dysfunction is not about function at all.

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Harriet Fagerberg
Cambridge University

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Health as a theoretical concept.Christopher Boorse - 1977 - Philosophy of Science 44 (4):542-573.
What Biological Functions Are and Why They Matter.Justin Garson - 2019 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
In defense of proper functions.Ruth Millikan - 1989 - Philosophy of Science 56 (June):288-302.
What a theory of mental health should be.Christopher Boorse - 1976 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 6 (1):61–84.

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