Judgement, normativity and the philosophy
of mental healthcare
A synoptic review of my research
A synoptic review of my research
Introduction
My research concerns the nature of judgement. Implicit in the idea
of forming an individual judgement, or in the faculty of judgement in general, is
a distinction between correctness and incorrectness. Judgement can be correct or
incorrect and, further, aims at correctness. It is an essentially
normative notion. But this raises the question of what underpins such normativity,
what disciplines judgement, and hence
the objectivity of judgement in different areas.
My work straddles mainstream philosophy and the newly developing field
of philosophy and psychiatry. It critically engages with some important contemporary
and twentieth century philosophers such as Wittgenstein, Davidson, McDowell, Ryle
and Polanyi. But it applies the results in the analysis of issues that arise at
the heart of mental healthcare. Reflecting the influence of Wittgenstein, my approach
is therapeutic as opposed to systematic. Rather than attempting to construct philosophical
theories, I aim instead to trace back philosophical confusions to the underlying
but questionable assumptions that lead to them. Nevertheless there are some common
themes concerning judgement, normativity and anti-reductionism. A central
concern is to combat the idea that only judgements whose standards of
correctness can be reduced to natural scientific terms or codified in general terms
can be objective. Starting with work on rules and meaning, this concern runs
through to moral judgement, tacit knowledge and understanding.
This document outlines the main themes of my research and their connections.
1.
Judgement and the objectivity of meaning
2.
The objectivity of other normative judgements
3.
Tacit knowledge and clinical judgement
4.
Anti-reductionism
5.
Normativity, anti-reductionism and the concept of disorder
6.
Understanding in mental healthcare
In the final section I outline my contribution to setting an agenda
for the future development of philosophy and psychiatry.
