Autism and ‘disease’: The semantics of an ill-posed question

Philosophical Psychology 30 (8):1126-1140 (2017)
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Abstract

It often seems incorrect to say that psychiatric conditions are diseases, and equally incorrect to say that they are not. This results in what would seem to be an unsatisfactory stalemate. The present essay examines the considerations that have brought us to such a stalemate in our discussions of autism. It argues that the stalemate in this particular case is a reflection of the fact that we need to find the logical space for a position that rejects both positive and negative answers. It then suggests one way in which we might find such space, by applying Michael Dummett’s notion of semantic disharmony.

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10.1080/09515089.2017.1338341

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Christopher Mole
University of British Columbia

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References found in this work

Review of E thics and the Limits of Philosophy.Thomas Nagel - 1986 - Journal of Philosophy 83 (6):351-360.
Mental illness is indeed a myth.Hanna Pickard - 2009 - In Matthew Broome & Lisa Bortolotti (eds.), Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience. Oxford University Press.
Making It Explicit: Reasoning, Representing and Discursive Commitment.Brandom Robert - 1995 - Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 68 (3):83-84.

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