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. That morning, 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.

 

I really have only scratched the surface of a marvellous event; and will look to extend this post, to take in the second day.

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.

BCS SPECIALIST GROUP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Virtual seminar 'Generative AI'

BCS SPECIALIST GROUP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (SGAI)

The next in our series of free evening virtual seminars will be on Wednesday March 11th from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. (UK time). The topic will be Generative AI.

Synopsis

Generative AI is rapidly reshaping the landscape of intelligent systems. This virtual seminar covers cutting-edge research and visionary perspectives on the design, deployment, and governance of generative models. It explores how generative models are enabling adaptive control, task planning, and embodied intelligence in dynamic environments. It also addresses GenAI robustness, interpretability, and alignment which are critical pillars for deploying generative systems in high-stakes domains.

The speakers will be Dr Mark Post (University of York) on 'Safety, Trust, and Perception of Generative AI: Is it deceiving us, or are we deceiving ourselves?' and Dr Erfu Yang (University of Strathclyde) on 'Generative AI in Robotics and Automation: Applications, Advancements and Challenges'.

The virtual seminar series is free and open to all. For further details and for the zoom link to use go to http://https://bcs-sgai.org/seminars/2026-03-11/.

Details of future SGAI events will be placed on the website at https://bcs-sgai.org as they become available. To register to be sent information about future SGAI events by email go to https://www.bcs-sgai.org/register/.

Max Bramer
Chair, BCS SGAI
----------------------------------------------------
Chair, British Computer Society Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence
Emeritus Professor, School of Computing, University of Portsmouth, UK
http://www.maxbramer.org

My source: BCS-AI mail list.