Imperfect Cognitions

Today's post is by Joseph Masotti (University of California San Diego) and Paul Conway (University of Southampton) on their recent paper, " When Do People Have an Obligation Not to Tic? Blame, Free Will, and Moral Character Judgments of People with Tourette’s Syndrome " ( Neuroethics 2024). Joseph Masotti Imagine being in a public space when suddenly you feel an uncontrollable urge to shout a word or sound. You know others may judge you, and you want to resist, but the urge is overpowering. If you shout, you may explain to others that the urge was just too powerful to resist. But then, others may see you acting mechanistically, lacking the control needed to be responsible for your actions. On the other hand, you can’t take responsibility for your shouting, as you know it’s not intentional. This is the reality for many with Tourette’s Syndrome (TS), a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary tics.  Paul Conway Our study investigates how people perceive blame, f...

The author of the post is Walter Glannon , who is a professor of philosophy at the University of Calgary in Canada. He has held other academic appointments at McGill University and the University of British Columbia.  Walter grew up and received all of his education in the US. Following a fellowship in clinical medical ethics at the University of Chicago, for 5 years (2000-2005) he was clinical ethicist at 3 hospitals in Montreal and Vancouver. This is largely how he developed his interest in research and clinical aspects of psychiatry. Advances in psychiatric research and clinical psychiatry in the last 30 years have given rise to a host of new questions that lie at the intersection of psychiatry, neuroscience, philosophy and law. Such questions include: Are psychiatric disorders diseases of the brain, caused by dysfunctional neural circuits and neurotransmitters? What role do genes, neuro-endocrine, neuro-immune interactions and the environment play in the ...

In this post, Rocco J. Gennaro  (picture below) presents his forthcoming edited book titled 'Disturbed Consciousness: New Essays on Psychopathologies and Theories of Consciousness'. My name is Rocco J. Gennaro. I am Professor of Philosophy and Philosophy Department Chair at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, Indiana, USA. My Ph.D. in philosophy is from Syracuse University in 1991. I moved from Indiana State University in Terre Haute (where I was for fourteen years) to the University of Southern Indiana in 2009. My main area of specialty is philosophy of mind/cognitive science and consciousness, but I also have strong interests in metaphysics, ethics, and early modern history of philosophy. I have published seven books (as either sole author or editor) and numerous papers in these areas, often defending a version of the higher-order thought (HOT) theory of consciousness. I have also written on animal and infant consciousness, episodic memory, and ha...