“Folly, Melancholy, Madnesse, are but one disease: Feelings and Reasoning Norms in the Anatomy of Melancholy and today’s Mind Sciences”, Professor Jennifer Radden (University of Massachusetts)

Date: Monday 9 November 2015
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Webb Lecture Theatre, Geography and Geology Building, The University of Western Australia
Contact: Pam Bond (pam.bond@uwa.edu.au)

Relying on Stoic philosophical ideas, Burton’s Anatomy (1621) presents the case that the unavoidable sadness and sorrow we feel in response to life’s vicissitudes are matched by, and tied to, unavoidably errant and mistaken reasoning. In this respect, I show, the Anatomy anticipates findings and debates in the mind sciences of today. Disputes over distresses that are normal and adaptive rather than pathological (“normal sadness,” not depression), are the focus of one of these; the second involves the finding that bias and inaccuracy are built into the structure of normal thought patterns. Using Stoic ideas, Burton links the norms guiding feeling and reasoning, and the aim of this paper is to critically evaluate that relationship and the Stoic claims in light of contemporary discussions.

Jennifer Radden is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA. Her teaching and research interests include moral philosophy, particularly the moral and philosophical foundations of public policy, the ethics of policy analysis and decision-making, feminist theory, and the ethics of psychiatry and mental health policy. Her articles include “Choosing to Refuse: Patients’ Rights and Psychotropic Medication,” in Bioethics, and “Chemical Sanity and Persona Identity,” in Public Affairs Quarterly. She is the author of Divided Minds and Successive Selves: Ethical Issues in Disorders of Identity and Personality, and The Nature of Melancholy.