Imperfect Cognitions

 This week's post is by Virginia Ballesteros, an assistant professor at the University of Valencia.  Virginia Ballesteros In contemporary theories of social cognition, autism is predominantly framed through cognitivist paradigms, such as "theory of mind" or "simulation theory". These frameworks treat social understanding as an individualistic, internalist epistemic puzzle: the challenge of knowing the inaccessible mental states of others from one's own isolated mind. From this perspective, autistic difficulties are construed as impairments in the cognitive faculties or neural machinery required to make the inferences or simulations needed to read the mental states of others. In contrast, approaches rooted in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy aim not to solve this puzzle, but to dissolve it. From a Wittgensteinian standpoint, minds are not hidden, private entities; rather, emotions, intentions, and psychological states are visibly manifested in behavior, gestu...

On today’s post, Mara Floris explores the role of existing medical evidence in identifying instances of epistemic injustice. Mara is a philosophy of science researcher at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, working on epistemic injustice, healthcare communication, and gender-fair language. Mara Floris Recent debates on epistemic injustice in healthcare have raised an important methodological question: how can we establish that epistemic injustice is occurring? Nielsen et al. (2025) argue that the field needs clearer conceptual criteria and stronger empirical evidence, particularly for claims about testimonial injustice. A response by members of the EPIC project develops this discussion, arguing for an empirically informed but methodologically pluralistic approach (Byrne et al., 2026) . Færge et al (2026) similarly emphasise methodological pluralism. My recent paper takes this discussion in another direction: we need better ways of identifying epistemic injustice, but shoul...

On today's post, Yufeng Liu (Lancaster University), whose research focuses on metaphor, health communication and AI, explores whether AI can understand the metaphors we use about illness. Yufeng Liu Can AI Understand the Metaphors We Use About Illness?  When people talk about cancer or depression, they often use metaphors. Cancer can be an “enemy” to fight, recovery can be a “journey”, and depression can feel like “darkness”, a “heavy burden”, or being “trapped in a box”. These expressions do more than describe illness. They help people make sense of difficult experiences and communicate feelings that may otherwise be hard to put into words.  I use “AI” broadly here to include large language models, and this study focuses on ChatGPT. As more people turn to it for comfort, or simply someone to talk to, I asked: can ChatGPT pick up the metaphors people use about illness, and does it respond differently when the same experience is expressed literally? In my recent article, “ Expl...

In today’s post, Mateo Boberg, Julie Nordgaard and Mads Gram Henriksen (University of Copenhagen) explore how reliable psychiatric diagnoses are in the 21st century.                                                                                                                                   Mads Gram Henriksen Mateo Boberg  Julie Nordgaard What happens if two psychiatrists assess the same patient? Most people, including many clinicians, would probably expect them to reach the same diagnosis. After all, modern psychiatry has spent decades developing operational diagnostic criteria intended to improve diagnostic reliability. But how reliable are psychiatri...

In today’s post, Lydia Tsiakiri, Research Fellow at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore, explores whether judgments of wrongful discrimination are sensitive to personal responsibility, drawing on her research into responsibility, discrimination, healthcare, and public policy. Lydia Tsiakiri Imagine two patients who both need a lung transplant. One developed severe lung disease after decades of smoking. The other has the same condition because of a rare genetic mutation. If the hospital gives priority to the second patient, is that an instance of wrongful discrimination? Most of us agree that wrongful discrimination is morally objectionable. Yet cases like this raise a more difficult question. Does it matter whether the characteristic on which people are treated differently is something they are responsible for? If two individuals are treated differently because one is responsible for the relevant characteristic and the other is not, are we less likely to ...

In today’s post, Hielke Bosma explores the role of inner strength in rehabilitation care. Hielke is a spiritual care professional and academic researcher affiliated with the Amsterdam Rehabilitation Research Center  and the University of Humanistic Studies in the Netherlands, whose research focuses on spiritual exercises and chronic pain. Hielke Bosma The idea for my research on inner strength began in a rehabilitation centre. I remember two young men of roughly the same age. One was a student; the other worked in construction. Both had sustained a spinal cord injury in an accident and faced the prospect of never walking again.  Their responses could hardly have been more different. The construction worker felt that his life was over. He believed he could no longer do anything. The student responded: “I was studying before the accident, and now I am studying again. I don’t see the problem.”  Neither wanted to join a discussion group. For one, talking seemed pointless: it ...