Imperfect Cognitions

Today's post is by George Chapman, an academic psychiatrist-in-training currently based at the University of Oxford, and Robert Howard, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at University College London and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the North London NHS Foundation Trust.           George Chapman Robert Howard Delusions are classically described as ‘fixed’ false beliefs. This description was first articulated by Karl Jaspers and, while it is widely considered to be an overstatement or incomplete, it still forms the basis of definitions found in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD). In recent years, there have been tremendous advances towards unravelling why and how delusions emerge . However, much less has been learned about why or how delusions are persistently sustained once formed. This discrepancy motivated our just-published narrative review, “ On the fixed nature of delusions”  which I briefly ...

Today's post is by Alessandro Fiorello, an adjunct philosophy professor at the University of Ottawa, where he also received his PhD in 2025. His main research interests are in free will, narrative views of personal identity, ethics, and related topics in the metaphysics of death and philosophy of religion. Alessandro Fiorello                                         All human beings have at least one thing in common: we are all going to die. Achievements in nutrition, public health, and medical science have increased human longevity. Many people believe that increasing our longevity indefinitely would be desirable. But what if being given indefinite extended longevity creates a kind of boredom with one’s life that cannot be solved by finding new things to do? In my recent essay, “Terminal Boredom, Longevity, and Narrative” I analyse a famous argument against the desirability of immortalit...

This post is by Maria Silvia Salvatori, a Master’s degree student in Philosophy, already holding a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophical Sciences from the University of Bologna, with a background in classical studies, editorial communication, and cognitive sciences. Currently working as a professional educator in primary education, with academic interests in philosophy of mind, delusions, and human cognition. Maria Silvia Salvatori Martha's clinical case, who is discussed by Sabine Spielrein at the Burghölzli clinic in the early twentieth century, is not merely the record of a psychiatric case, but an epistemological mirror. By analysing her delusion, crucial questions emerge: What is the difference between psychotic belief and ordinary belief?  Is there an inner logic in pathological language that can "translate" across cognitive sciences and biological science? Architectures of a Mind Martha N. is described by Spielrein in terms of incoherent affect and a confused, someti...

This week's post is by Joshua Sealy (Macquarie University) on his recent paper  Redefining disability and pathology as both developmental and relational: the ‘phenomenological congruence and flexibility’ approach to disability   in  Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.  Joshua Sealy A popular sentiment in the deaf community is that deafness is not a disability, it is a ‘difference’, with deaf cultures all over the world acting as sources of various values and habits associated with sight, touch, sign language, and solidarity. On the other hand, deafness is hearing impairment, a dysfunction of the deaf person’s ear and/or brain; a disability. Many assume an irreconcilable tension between the two positions. But growing up as a deaf person, I knew intuitively that both positions were true at the same time. The solution required addressing messy definitions of ability, disability, impairment, and pathology. Indeed, a deaf person can be ‘healthy’ despite their disabi...

In Athens, you can visit the site of Plato's Academy. A few steps away, you find a Digital Museum of Plato's Philosophy. In this post, Lisa Bortolotti talks about her visit to the Museum and how the curators have made Plato's philosophy fun and relevant. Plato's Academy Digital Museum Plato founded his Academy in 388 BCE. Some people call this the very first university, as it was a place where people studied what we now consider to be the foundations of Western science and philosophy. Now there is not much left of the Academy, it is a small archaeological site in Athens, in a quiet park where people walk their dogs.  Plato! Not far from the Academy, there is a wonderful  philosophy museum  dedicated to Plato's life and philosophy. The museum was opened twelve years ago, and admission is free. The project was funded by the National Strategic Reference Framework (The Citizen and Society) and is supported by the Onassis Foundation, Athens University, the Municipality o...

The British Library hosts an exhibition on fairy tales, which brings to the fore the common elements of folk tales across cultures, such as the fable as a way of advising the reader about how to live their lives, the plot as the battle between good and evil, magical powers as a way to transcend the limitations of human agency, and transformations as a reflection on identity. The Beast, Belle and her father in the classic tale of The Beauty and the Beast The exhibition starts with editions of the works by Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm gathered many folk tales from friends and family and put them in writing, preparing versions for adults and for children. Stories include Snow White and Hansel and Gretel. Perrault lived in France over 300 years ago and he is attributed Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty. Edition of Brothers Grimm fairy tales One section of the exhibition concerns villains, and features prominently giants, goblins, stepmothers, ...