The invention of language

7 After the Fall

'Adam's one task in the Garden had been to invent language, to give each creature and thing its name. In that state of innocence, his tongue had gone straight to the quick of the world. His words had not been merely appended to the things he saw, they had revealed their essences, had literally brought them to life. A thing and its name were interchangeable. After the fall, this was no longer true. Names became detached from things, words devolved into a collection of arbitrary signs; language had been severed fom God. The story of the Garden, therefore, records not only the fall of man, but the fall of language.' 

    Paul Auster

In, Robert C. Stalnaker (2008) Our Knowledge of the Internal World. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press. hb. p.132.

Auster, P. (1985) The New York Trilogy (New York: Penguin Books). p.52.

Thoughts ii re. 2026 Lancaster Philosophy of Psychiatry Work in Progress Workshop

For me, applying Hodges' model I tend to place philosophy and psychiatry (mind, thought, belief, truth, intention ...) within the humanistic part of the model. So, Ewa Grzeszczak and - Philosophy of psychiatry and the methodology of social ontology - stood out. This is helpful as Homeostatic Property Clusters (HPC) are a useful structure, spanning bio-mathematics. As suggested previously with 'equality', we can place the philosophical non-trivial question of kinds at the centre of Hodges' model and proceed (if possible?) from there.

The requirement for a holistic, integrative and pluralistic framework is there in literature. A stattement supported by Alessandra Civani's talk: 'What kind of concept is ‘incongruence’? I located a paper:

Enactive psychiatry - A pragmatic and pluralistic approach to mental health and disease

- (and now have a copy c/o and thanks to Alessandra) and am grateful to being pointed to de Haan:

An Enactive Approach to Psychiatry

 I will (must) return to these papers. Earlier on Hodges' model, I'd opined (as on 'X') how the -

• medical
• biomedical
• bio-psycho-social models - are insufficient in the 21st century.

There was a thematic feel to the presentations with Anna Golova - Self-illness ambiguity without a self-illness distinction - following nicely. The styling on the slides was an added bonus. I located an informative (co-authored) paper by Golova:

‘Is it me or my illness?’: self-illness ambiguity as a useful conceptual lens for psychiatry'

Part of the power of Hodges' model derives not so much from its duality; as its dual axes. The two axes can encompass and handle the relatedness between/within reductionism, holist perspectives, the self and otherness, illness and health (well-being).

An hours break brought us to an event which was very well attended, clearly open to the public:

6-7pm Prof Miriam Solomon – Royal Institute of Philosophy talk ‘Stigma as an actant in the history of psychiatry’

In setting out the talk's structure I liked Prof. Solomon's reference to the common, implicit "grime" theory of the dynamic of stigma, and "punching down" as a strategy for managing stigma. 'Grime' made me think of sense of smell, the grime in my father's work van, a diesel. Now so many memories are evoked with the merest whiff. More positively, the patina of physical and mental life also came to mind. You would - might think stigma has been dealt with by now, but of course we are socio-politically far from it.

There is a related podcast from 2025, which also covers Prof. Solomon's early studies. A previous paper was also noted in the slides:

Solomon, M. (2025). The Elusiveness of Hermeneutic Injustice in Psychiatric Categorizations. Social Epistemology, 39(2), 166–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2024.2400068

 

Discussion of the DSM inevitably followed (and in the above podcast). In questions the 'reality' of severe mental illness, and suggestion of the acute challenge of managing the negative symptoms of psychoses.

 

Prof. Solomon's conclusion was well worth waiting for, including:

Stigma as an "actant" (cf. Bruno Latour's concept of an agent: causal role without intention)... DSM - ICD...

 

If stigma disappeared tomorrow, the DSM would not have the same categories. 

 

Stigma (more specifically, its management) is shaping the conceptual space, with both scientific and moral consequences.

[Added 4th March...] On Friday - Sam Fellowes, took on, or has taken on - the non-trivial issue of - Modelling psychiatric diagnoses when self-diagnosing - how does this work? Complexity was acknowledged on the first slide, with self-diagnosis, and modelling, set against the Duhem-Quine thesis. 

This technical aspect is welcome and no doubt essential given the socio-technical nature of diagnosis, touching as it does the public (society), primary care, psychiatry, service user groups, policymakers, informatics, and HM Treasury, amongst several 'stakeholders'. With the impact of the internet and social media, much (if not all?) of the vocabulary of mental health professionals has been co-opted and re-framed(?) by patient / service-user groups? It does not, for example, appear that the agency behind the DSM will be able to claim it back. Autism and ADHD were also discussed and debated. I located a previous chapter by Sam (pay-wall):

Fellowes S. Self-Diagnosis in Psychiatry and the Distribution of Social Resources. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement. 2023;94:55-76. doi:10.1017/S1358246123000218

 

This really is a thicket of thorns, it spreads as and wherever you go.

 

The welfare bill is such that there should have been government Ministers in attendance. I have responded on behalf of clients to PIP assessments. Agencies have invited me to interview for 'Disability Assessor' roles. Not only is this a complex web, but several logics obtain: a perverse temporal logic operates, binary logic and a fixed mindset can develop so that some (vulnerable!?) individuals can get stuck. Perhaps, a social imperative steps in and disrupts, life chances: their being a NEET ('a young person who is no longer in the education system and who is not working or being trained for work'. Ecosia) is better for someone else? 

 

To unpick, make sense of this, you need a foundational universal model.

 

There is a (co-authored) paper from Giulia Russo, who presented - Epistemic and political role of experience: https://philpapers.org/rec/RUSTPO-112 from which:

'As it is widely known, epistemic injustice was introduced by Fricker (2007) to unveil power relations that have negative consequences on people as epistemic agents. She distinguished in particular two different kinds of epistemic injustice: testimonial and hermeneutical. The first kind occurs when a person (usually in a disadvantaged and oppressed role within the epistemic relation) is damaged as a knower because, as the name suggests, their testimony is overlooked, dismissed or invalidated. The second kind of epistemic injustice occurs when a person is deprived of the epistemic resources to even explain or articulate their experience of distress, or of systemic oppression. In connection to this, the concepts of neurodivergence and neurodiversity come from the political and social arena, and are born explicitly to contrast dominant pathologizing narratives in psychiatry.'

In seeking some 'test' cases to try to model relationally, Hodges' model suggests at least four - without letting the care / knowledge domains wag-the-dog. Giulia's talk was very helpful, ranging across forms of epistemic injustice (addressed by others too), identity, neurodivergence, lived experience, self-, counter- and collective narratives with references. A great resource.

 

Frank Denning, reminded me of an important phenomena, in Using Stebbing’s Directional Analysis to Evaluate ‘Mentalizing’. Talking therapies, or more properly referral to talking therapies often presents several criteria that would-be subjects must 'pass'. An ability to mentalize, can represent one. This is understanable, for effectiveness, efficiency, efficacy ... it is to be found in the manual. But, in terms of power relations, gate keeping in various forms is a literal (virtual) key to service access. Hodges' model is no different (sigh!). At what age can people start to use Hodges' model? What mentalization is involved to cognitively engage in use of Hodges' model? 

 

I struggled to obtain a copy of Stebbing's original work from 1930, but see how closely tied the work is to physics. An Internet Archive copy is poor quality. The search will continue, as I suspect there are links to Bill Ross's text on Deleuzian cosmology. It is marvellous that work from 1930 resonates today. There is: 

Janssen-Lauret, F. (Accepted/In press). Directional Analysis in Susan Stebbing’s Philosophy of Physics. In S. Chapman (Ed.), Susan Stebbing on Logic and Analysis Springer Nature. 

https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/338653274/Directional_Analysis_in_Susan_Stebbing_s_Philosophy_of_Physics_Final_.pdf

Gloria Ayob - Flourishing as mental health - was encouraging. 'TASK 1:EQUATION' a slide was titled, including emotional disorder is meta-evaluative; there are negative and positive poles, plus isomorphism between unpleasantness-pleasantness and disorder-health. I think my stomach was protesting I should have paid more attention. There is a blog post by Gloria: https://blog.oup.com/2024/12/the-concept-of-emotional-disorder/

After lunch Richard Hassall - Hermeneutical Injustice and Damaged Intellectual Self-Trust in Psychiatric Service Users, a reminder of the time and effort that needs to be put into public and patient involvement and engagement in mental health service (when this is desired). References included J.L. Austin and J.S. Bruner. A paper:

Hassall R. Sense-making and hermeneutical injustice following a psychiatric diagnosis. J Eval Clin Pract. 2024 Aug;30(5):848-854. doi: 10.1111/jep.13971. Epub 2024 Feb 20. PMID: 38375925.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jep.13971 

Scoping reviews are more common it seems: Lara Calabrese - Exploring epistemic injustice in dementia care: a scoping review and a qualitative study, plus paper [with QR code on the slide]:

Calabrese L, Brigiano M, Quartarone M, Chirico I, Trolese S, Lambiase F, Forte L, Annini A, Bortolotti L, Chattat R. I'm still here and my opinion matters: a scoping review on the experience of epistemic injustice among people living with dementia. Curr Psychol. 2025 Dec 17;45(1):s12144-025-08519-y. doi: 10.1007/s12144-025-08519-y. PMID: 41445984; PMCID: PMC7618523.

 

The paper's title here brought to mind the radio programme "Does He Take Sugar?" Questions followed regards the studies methods. Since leaving I wondered if there has been an evaluation of Dementia Friendly Communities? Are there dots to usefully joined there?

 

The final talk was delivered (with gusto - pepped me up anyway) by Jacob Barlow - Epistemic borders: experts, communities, communication. Jacob's interest in pragmatism was apparent. I look forward to reading future work, and note Liverpool 2025: ‘Problems with Pragmatism in the Philosophy of Psychiatry’.

All in all, a stimulating and enjoyable event.

Thoughts re. 2026 Lancaster Philosophy of Psychiatry Work in Progress Workshop

After posting on the 19th February about the 2026 Lancaster Philosophy of Psychiatry Work in Progress Workshop last Thursday, 1100 through to 1530 on Friday - was well worth attending. I am also grateful for the opportunity to present Hodges' model, share current challenges and questions. Running through the programme what helped here:

While seemingly open in title the first presentation with Hane Maung, was (as with all) specific, but related to aspects of psychiatry and philosophy applicable here; classification, what is a 'disease'?, concepts, Millikan also appears in a reference: https://philpapers.org/go.pl?aid=MAUTDO-6.

As 2nd speaker, there were several questions after my presentation. Fourteen slides went to time: 20 minutes with 10 for Q&A. I'm not the best judge, but I believe I answered them. As my 'subject' is always the same in Hodges' model, I do make an effort to try (at least) to say something new. Listening, I soon realised this is an established Lancaster-grounded group, and welcoming too. If there is ever another opportunity, something new would definitely have to follow.

I can see scope for this in Matthew Williams's - The failure of the harm-minimisation argument for BID Surgery and the necessity of therapeutic justification. 'BIDS' is 'Body integrity dysphoria surgery' a challenging and ethics-bound situation, that while still rare, has made the news for (as ever) the wrong reasons. The relations to be considered cross all the domains and dimensions of health, care and more.

It is possible to become complacent regards our conceptual currency. Without taking care, we grow to take them for granted. I'm grateful to Clive Duddy for a refresh were autonomy is concerned.

'Difference' is a recurring trope in healthcare, informatics and other fields. George Turner's 'difference denied' and subsequent discussions was extra insightful therefore, addressing ongoing (legacy?) issues for service users, carers, patient and public involvement and engagement (PIE).

Presenting, 'Different ways of medical knowing in Walzer's different spheres of justice?', Dieneke Hubbeling drew my attention to Walzer's book: Spheres Of Justice: A Defense Of Pluralism And Equality. In addition capacity and capacities (to achieve an outcome), plus difference (again), especially when it comes to knowledge and knowing. I remember thinking about rather than putting the person at the centre of Hodges' model, place 'equality' and reflect upon that.

I note that we overlap with a journal too, and another topic - overtreatment - that was something of an elephant in the room (perhaps?): a further theme to follow - https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/113806/1/jep.13632.pdf

Ali Walker's Forget Fictionalism: Psychiatric Disorders are Quasi-Real,with a topological - cartographic themed slide perked me up later afternoon. The subject of Borderline Personality Disorder also reminded me of the extent of change in adult community mental health services, in practice through 1985-1995 and that encountered in 2019. Much to digest here. A 3 minute video of Ali's thesis BPD Disorder - Trauma is available from last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tMSyt71hvs

I will review/add more details here, or a new post.

Definition: Individual and Group Counselling

INDIVIDUAL

|

    INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

"Counsellor"
	"Counsellor of state"

My source: Robert Wright, Starmer eyes succession law change for Andrew, FTWeekend, 21-22 February, 2026, p.2.

Previously: 'counselling' : 'therapy'

ii Rare Disease Day 2026

 

myAware - Urgent Rare Disease Day Appeal 2026

Cystinosis

Mersey Gateway Bridge

Rare Disease Day 2026 Official Video

28 February is 
Rare Disease Day

'Raising awareness and generating change for the 300 million people worldwide living with a rare disease, their families and carers.'

Manchester, UK https://www.rarediseaseday.org/event/light-up-for-rare-2/

Continued ... https://www.rarediseaseday.org/

New Journal Alert - Philosophy and Urban Affairs

Dear Philosophers,

I'm pleased to announce that Philosophy and Urban Affairs is now operational. Below is a description.

Philosophy and Urban Affairs is a peer-reviewed journal that explores the ethical, political, epistemological, metaphysical, and social dimensions of cities. Articles may be theoretical, applied, or both, provided they illustrate how philosophical investigation can elucidate, critique, or inform city living.

Unsolicited manuscripts are not accepted. Instead, the journal solicits submissions through public calls on emerging topics or through invitations to scholars working on specific themes. On occasion, a focus article will be published to prompt response papers and foster sustained scholarly dialogue.

Philosophy and Urban Affairs is fully open access and charges no fees of any kind.

Check out the first CFP, Philosophical Perspectives on Coastal and Island Cities. 

All the best - Shane

Shane Epting, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Missouri University of Science and Technology

New Book: Creating Future Cities: Technology, Ethics, and the Fight for the Good Life

Shane Epting, in Creating Future Cities, insightfully analyzes complex normative challenges in urban planning and design—from organizing urban residents' political power to building for resilience—and passionately argues that citizens of cities must fight for their cities and their futures. - Ronald R. Sundstrom, University of San Francisco, USA

My source:

Philos-L "The Liverpool List" is run by the Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/ Messages to the list are archived at http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html. Recent posts can also be read in a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/PhilosL/ Follow the list on Twitter @PhilosL. Follow the Department of Philosophy @LiverpoolPhilos 

IFS Report: 'From fiscal rules to fiscal traffic lights: rethinking the UK fiscal framework'

'In other words, the current framework means that macroeconomic volatility is mainlined into policy volatility, which adds unnecessarily to economic uncertainty and makes good policymaking less likely. There is also a problem of asymmetry: when the forecast improves, any additional ‘headroom’ is typically treated as free money and happily spent. Yet when the forecast worsens, the rules tend to get changed or ‘gamed’: Chancellors of all political stripes have proved adept at promising future tax rises or spending cuts which are unlikely to be delivered, but which allow them to meet the letter of their rolling fiscal targets. 

All this is to say, the current framework is not delivering good outcomes. It is not achieving sustainable public finances, it has limited credibility with financial markets, and it is not creating the conditions for good policymaking or for a high-quality public debate about the important issues at play. It seems likely that any framework, left in place for long enough, will start to create problems in practice, as unhelpful norms emerge and actors find ways to game the system. Just as the tendency of HM Treasury to fudge its forecasts in the 2000s was one reason for the creation of the OBR as a corrective mechanism, the dysfunction around the current framework necessitates a change in thinking and approach.'

INDIVIDUAL

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    INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

'Fixation upon - lived [ equilibrium ] experience 'RAG' assessment of patients in mental health services - caseload management	fiscal headroom' GOOD - BAD PASS - FAIL Equilibrium Outcomes
Public Policy   Interviews   sustainable public finances   good policymaking (here) high-quality public debate Cost of Living	Report: IFS Policy Office for Budget Responsibility

My source: Valentina Romei, IFS urges end to fixation on fiscal 'headroom', Financial Times, 19 February, 2026, p.3.

Images: IFS

c/o RollingStone UK - "U2 surprise-drop politically charged ‘Days of Ash’ EP with six new songs"

The collection delves into ICE, Israel, the West Bank, Ukraine, Iran — and features a guest vocal by Ed Sheeran

U2 (RollingStone UK - Picture: Anton Corbijn) 

By Andy Greene

'U2 have emerged from a long hiatus with a surprise six-song EP, Days of Ash, available now, in which they address political flashpoints around the world, including ICE raids in the US, the Iranian uprisings, the war in Ukraine, and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The six songs — ‘American Obituary’, ‘The Tears of Things’, ‘Song of the Future’, ‘Wildpeace’, ‘One Life at a Time’ and ‘Yours Eternally’ (featuring Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia) — are all on streaming platforms. They’ve also created lyric videos for each one.' 

Continued ...

Previously: conflict : war : hope : peace

Millikan's Unicepts and Unitrackers

An underpinning theory of Hodges' model must help us make sense of what is happening within the care domains, between the domains, and possibly say something about what may be significant relation[s]-ships that are diametric. Arriving at threshold concepts I wondered in Hodges' model about there being compound threshold concepts. Consider, when 2-3 thresholds are (b)reached in one (the sciences) domain? Contrast this then, with 4-5 thresholds across care domains? There may also be care concepts applicable that are for example, person-centred: that is, patient, carer, 'management', or policy defined? These concepts while not threshold related per se, are nonetheless relevant.

I came across the work of Ruth G Millikan in London, several years ago as I followed 'epistemology' around the shop. It is time to pick this up and earlier work:

Millikan, Ruth Garrett. “Biosemantics.” The Journal of Philosophy 86, no. 6 (1989): 281–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/2027123

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235734046_Biosemantics 

INTRODUCTION TO PART I

0.4 Unicepts and Unitrackers

'Neither the clusters in the world nor their properties are found at the sensory surfaces. The properties characterize distal objects and events. They are manifested in diverse and irregular ways through signs impinging on the sensory surfaces, energy patterns that are contingent on shifting intervening circumstances.' ...

'A unitracker is a mechanism or faculty for same-tracking something, for recognizing when incoming information concerns it, then linking and storing this information together as information about one and the same thing. Only then can it can be brought to bear together on inference and action. The link connecting stored information about the same thing together is a "unicept." The information is recognized, paradigmatically,by the initiation or strengthening of an intentional attitude of credence, which we tentatively model as a temporary or enduring connection between the unicept and unicepts for other things.'

'Both unicepts and unitrackers are particulars. You and I do not have any of the same unicepts or unitrackers. What we have in common is unicepts and unitrackers for many of the same things.' ...

'Unitrackers are same-trackers used for collecting knowledge about their targets.' pp.7-8.

Millikan, Ruth Garrett, Beyond Concepts: Unicepts, Language, and Natural Information (Oxford, 2017; online edn, Oxford Academic, 19 Oct. 2017), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198717195.001.0001, accessed 16 Feb. 2026.