41 found
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  1. Wherein is the concept of disease normative? From weak normativity to value-conscious naturalism.M. Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2021 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 25 (1):1-14.
    In this paper we focus on some new normativist positions and compare them with traditional ones. In so doing, we claim that if normative judgments are involved in determining whether a condition is a disease only in the sense identified by new normativisms, then disease is normative only in a weak sense, which must be distinguished from the strong sense advocated by traditional normativisms. Specifically, we argue that weak and strong normativity are different to the point that one ‘normativist’ label (...)
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  2.  94
    COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death: disentangling facts and values.Maria Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2021 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43 (1):1-4.
    In the ongoing pandemic, death statistics influence people’s feelings and government policy. But when does COVID-19 qualify as the cause of death? As philosophers of medicine interested in conceptual clarification, we address the question by analyzing the World Health Organization’s rules for the certification of death. We show that for COVID-19, WHO rules take into account both facts and values.
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  3. Conceptual Engineering of Medical Concepts.Elisabetta Lalumera - forthcoming - In Manuel Gustavo Isaac, Kevin Scharp & Steffen Koch (eds.), New Perspectives on Conceptual Engineering. Synthese Library.
    There is a lot of conceptual engineering going on in medical research. I substantiate this claim with two examples, the medical debate about cancer classification and about obesity as a disease I also argue that the proper target of conceptual engineering in medical research are experts’ conceptions. These are explicitly written down in documents and guidelines, and they bear on research and policies. In the second part of the chapter, I propose an externalist framework in which conceptions have both the (...)
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  4. Reliability of molecular imaging diagnostics.Elisabetta Lalumera, Stefano Fanti & Giovanni Boniolo - 2021 - Synthese (S23):5701-5717.
    Advanced medical imaging, such as CT, fMRI and PET, has undergone enormous progress in recent years, both in accuracy and utilization. Such techniques often bring with them an illusion of immediacy, the idea that the body and its diseases can be directly inspected. In this paper we target this illusion and address the issue of the reliability of advanced imaging tests as knowledge procedures, taking positron emission tomography in oncology as paradigmatic case study. After individuating a suitable notion of reliability, (...)
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  5.  53
    Harm should not be a necessary criterion for mental disorder: some reflections on the DSM-5 definition of mental disorder.Maria Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2019 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 40 (4):321-337.
    The general definition of mental disorder stated in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders seems to identify a mental disorder with a harmful dysfunction. However, the presence of distress or disability, which may be bracketed as the presence of harm, is taken to be merely usual, and thus not a necessary requirement: a mental disorder can be diagnosed as such even if there is no harm at all. In this paper, we focus on the (...)
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  6.  51
    An overview on trust and trustworthiness: individual and institutional dimensions.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2024 - Philosophical Psychology 37 (1):1-17.
    Philosophical Psychology is dedicating this issue on trust and trustworthiness to Katherine Hawley (1971–2021) for two reasons. First, she was an expert in the area. Hawley was one of the most rele...
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  7.  77
    A Potential Tension in DSM-5: The General Definition of Mental Disorder versus Some Specific Diagnostic Criteria.M. Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2019 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 44 (1):85-108.
    The general concept of mental disorder specified in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is definitional in character: a mental disorder might be identified with a harmful dysfunction. The manual also contains the explicit claim that each individual mental disorder should meet the requirements posed by the definition. The aim of this article is two-fold. First, we shall analyze the definition of the superordinate concept of mental disorder to better understand what necessary criteria actually (...)
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  8. On the explanatory value of the concept conception distinction.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2014 - Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio 8 (2):73-81.
    The distinction between concept and conception has been widely debated in political philosophy, whereas in the philosophy of psychology is frequently used, but rarely focused on. This paper aims at filling in this lacuna. I claim that far from being explanatorily idle, the distinction makes it possible to provide an adequate description of phenomena such as genuine disagreement, and concept contestation, which would otherwise remain implausibly puzzling. I illustrate and assess three accounts of the concept-conception distinction. Finally I propose a (...)
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  9. Concepts: Stored or created?Marco Mazzone & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2010 - Minds and Machines 20 (1):47-68.
    Are concepts stable entities, unchanged from context to context? Or rather are they context-dependent structures, created on the fly? We argue that this does not constitute a genuine dilemma. Our main thesis is that the more a pattern of features is general and shared, the more it qualifies as a concept. Contextualists have not shown that conceptual structures lack a stable, general core, acting as an attractor on idiosyncratic information. What they have done instead is to give a contribution to (...)
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  10. The concept of disease in the time of COVID-19.Maria Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2020 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 41 (5):203-221.
    Philosophers of medicine have formulated different accounts of the concept of disease. Which concept of disease one assumes has implications for what conditions count as diseases and, by extension, who may be regarded as having a disease and for who may be accorded the social privileges and personal responsibilities associated with being sick. In this article, we consider an ideal diagnostic test for coronavirus disease 2019 infection with respect to four groups of people—positive and asymptomatic; positive and symptomatic; negative; and (...)
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  11.  91
    Concepts are a functional kind. Comment on Machery's Doing Without Concepts.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2010 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33 (2-3):217-18.
    This commentary focuses on Machery's eliminativist claim, that ought to be eliminated from the theoretical vocabulary of psychology because it fails to denote a natural kind. I argue for the more traditional view that concepts are a functional kind, which provides the simplest account of the empirical evidence discussed by Machery.
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  12.  26
    Moralisation of medicines: The case of hydroxychloroquine.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2023 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 13 (3):1-19.
    The concept of moralisation of health behaviours was introduced in social psychology to describe the attribution of moral properties to habits and conditions like smoking or being a vegetarian. Moral properties are powerful motivators for people and institutions, as they may trigger blame, stigma, and appraisal, as well as the polarisation of interest and scientific hype. Here I extend the concept and illustrate how medicines and treatments can be seen as if they had moral properties, too, when they come to (...)
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  13. The DSM-5 introduction of the Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder as a new mental disorder: a philosophical review.M. Cristina Amoretti, Elisabetta Lalumera & Davide Serpico - 2021 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43 (4):1-31.
    The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders included the Social Communication Disorder as a new mental disorder characterized by deficits in pragmatic abilities. Although the introduction of SPCD in the psychiatry nosography depended on a variety of reasons—including bridging a nosological gap in the macro-category of Communication Disorders—in the last few years researchers have identified major issues in such revision. For instance, the symptomatology of SPCD is notably close to that of Autism Spectrum Disorder. This (...)
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  14.  64
    Reviewing the Reproduction Number R in Covid-19 Models.Maria Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2022 - Philosophy of Medicine 3 (1).
    Most of the epidemiological models of the Covid-19 pandemic contain the reproduction number as a parameter. In this article we focus on some shortcomings regarding its role in driving health policies and political decisions. First, we summarize what R is and what it is used for. Second, we introduce a three-question matrix for the evaluation of any construct or parameter within a model. We then review the main literature about R to highlight some of its shortcomings and apply to them (...)
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  15. ‘Are mental disorders brain disorders?’ is a question of conceptual choice.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2023 - Philosophical Psychology 1 (3):1-13.
    This contribution focuses on what type of question “Are mental disorders brain disorders?” is and what task Anneli Jefferson performs in her book with the same title. I distinguish between conceptual engineering and conceptual choice, the former involving the individuation of an adequate concept for a specific goal, and the latter involving the normative problem of whether we should employ the concept at hand. I contend that Anneli Jefferson’s book is a work of conceptual engineering, which is valuable in and (...)
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  16. Saving the DSM-5? Descriptive conceptions and theoretical concepts of mental disorders.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2016 - Medicina E Storia 9.
    At present, psychiatric disorders are characterized descriptively, as the standard within the scientific community for communication and, to a certain extent, for diagnosis, is the DSM, now at its fifth edition. The main reasons for descriptivism are the aim of achieving reliability of diagnosis and improving communication in a situation of theoretical disagreement, and the Ignorance argument, which starts with acknowledgment of the relative failure of the project of finding biomarkers for most mental disorders. Descriptivism has also the advantage of (...)
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  17. Trust in health care and vaccine hesitancy.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2018 - Rivista di Estetica 68:105-122.
    Health care systems can positively influence our personal decision-making and health-related behavior only if we trust them. I propose a conceptual analysis of the trust relation between the public and a healthcare system, drawing from healthcare studies and philosophical proposals. In my account, the trust relation is based on an epistemic component, epistemic authority, and on a value component, the benevolence of the healthcare system. I argue that it is also modified by the vulnerability of the public on healthcare matters, (...)
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  18.  40
    Philosophy of Advanced medical Imaging.Elisabetta Lalumera & Stefano Fanti - 2021 - Springer International.
    This is the first book to explore the epistemology and ethics of advanced imaging tests, in order to improve the critical understanding of the nature of knowledge they provide and the practical consequences of their utilization in healthcare. Advanced medical imaging tests, such as PET and MRI, have gained center stage in medical research and in patients’ care. They also increasingly raise questions that pertain to philosophy: What is required to be an expert in reading images? How are standards for (...)
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  19. Randomized Controlled Trials for Diagnostic Imaging: Conceptual and Pratical Problems.Elisabetta Lalumera & Stefano Fanti - 2019 - Topoi 38 (2):395-400.
    We raise a problem of applicability of RCTs to validate nuclear diagnostic imaging tests. In spite of the wide application of PET and other similar techniques that use radiopharmaceuticals for diagnostic purposes, RCT-based evidence on their validity is sparse. We claim that this is due to a general conceptual problem that we call Prevalence of Treatment, which arises in connection with designing RCTs for testing any diagnostic procedure in the present context of medical research, and is particularly apparent in this (...)
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  20. Saving the DSM-5? Descriptive conceptions and theoretical concepts of mental disorders. MEDICINA & STORIA, 109-128.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2016 - Medicina E Storia 2 (9-10):109-129.
    Abstract: At present, psychiatric disorders are characterized descriptively, as the standard within the scientific community for communication and, to a cer- tain extent, for diagnosis, is the DSM, now at its fifth edition. The main rea- sons for descriptivism are the aim of achieving reliability of diagnosis and improving communication in a situation of theoretical disagreement, and the Ignorance argument, which starts with acknowledgment of the relative fail- ure of the project of finding biomarkers for most mental disorders. Descrip- tivism (...)
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  21. Reasons and Causes in Psychiatry: Ideas from Donald Davidson’s Work.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2018 - In Annalisa Coliva, Paolo Leonardi & Sebastiano Moruzzi (eds.), Eva Picardi on Language, Analysis and History. Londra, Regno Unito: Palgrave. pp. 281-296.
    Though the divide between reason-based and causal-explanatory approaches in psychiatry and psychopathology is old and deeply rooted, current trends involving multi-factorial explanatory models and evidence-based approaches to interpersonal psychotherapy, show that it has already been implicitly bridged. These trends require a philosophical reconsideration of how reasons can be causes. This paper contributes to that trajectory by arguing that Donald Davidson’s classic paradigm of 1963 is still a valid option.
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  22.  31
    Il criterio del “danno” nella definizione di disturbo mentale del DSM. Alcune riflessioni epistemologiche.Maria Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2018 - Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia 9 (2):139-150.
    Riassunto: In questo contributo analizzeremo il criterio del danno, presente nella definizione generale di disturbo mentale del DSM. La questione ha rilevanza sia da un punto di vista filosofico, perché il danno è una componente normativa e valoriale, non oggettiva, sia da un punto di vista clinico, perché chi ha difeso il criterio del danno ha spesso sostenuto che in sua assenza avremmo troppi falsi positivi. Infine, ha importanza dal punto di vista socio-sanitario in relazione al rapporto tra la psichiatria (...)
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  23. Not understanding others. The RdoC approach to Theory of mind and empathy deficits in Schizophrenia, Borderline Personality Disorder and Mood Disorders.Elisa Melloni, Francesco Benedetti, Benedetta Vai & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2020 - Phenomenology and Mind 2:162-181.
    The Research Domani Criteria framework (RdoC) encourages research on specific impairments present across traditional nosological categories and suggests a list of biological and behavioral measures for assessing them. After a description of RdoC, in this article we focus on impairments of the ability of understanding others, specifically in Theory of Mind and empathy. We illustrate recent evidence on brain anomalies correlating with these deficits in Schizophrenia, Addiction Disorders and Mood Disorders populations. In the last section, we zoom out and consider (...)
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  24.  42
    Unveiling the interplay between evidence, values and cognitive biases. The case of the failure of the AstraZeneca COVID‐19 vaccine.Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2023 - Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 1.
  25. Il problema della classificazione dei disturbi mentali.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2019 - In Rossella Guerini & Massimo Marraffa (eds.), Psicopatologia e scienze della mente. pp. 53-62.
    Le controversie nosologiche in psichiatria siano orientate da ragioni sia epistemiche che non epistemiche, da questioni di evidenza ma anche di etica e sociologia della scienza, data la presenza di vari programmi di ricerca, di metodologie e anche di agenti differenti che si focalizzano sul problema del disturbo mentale. I due casi qui brevemente considerati, quello della Disposofobia e quello del Disturbo di personalità narcisistica mostrano, assieme al ruolo dell’evidenza empirica, da un lato il peso delle ragioni etiche dei gruppi (...)
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  26. Non-Epistemic Factors in Epidemiological Models. The Case of Mortality Data.M. Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2021 - Mefisto 1 (5):65-78.
    The COVID-19 pandemic has made it especially visible that mortality data are a key component of epidemiological models, being a single indicator that provides information about various health aspects, such as disease prevalence and effectiveness of interventions, and thus enabling predictions on many fronts. In this paper we illustrate the interrelation between facts and values in death statistics, by analyzing the rules for death certification issued by the World Health Organization. We show how the notion of the underlying cause of (...)
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  27. Concetti, definizioni e analiticità.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2001 - Lingua E Stile 36 (1):25-42.
    Classical philosophical notions, such as conceptual truth, analyticity, and a priori knowledge, have recently re-entered the mainstream philosophical debate, after fifty years of depreciation. This paper illustrates how such notions are reintroduced and discussed in a current debate on the nature of concepts, along with the idea that a concept is individuated by an implicit definition. This traditional Neopositivist device has recently been redeployed by writers such as Peacocke, Horwich, and Boghossian. Implicit definitions raise a variety of interesting issues, from (...)
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  28.  5
    Psilocybin, moralization and psychotherapy: a scoping review and a case report.Emiliano Loria, Elisabetta Lalumera & Ambra D’Imperio - forthcoming - Philosophical Psychology.
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  29. A Simple Realist Account of the Normativity of Concepts.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2005 - Disputatio 1 (19):1-17.
    I argue that a concept is applied correctly when it is applied to the kind of things it is the concept of. Correctness as successful kind-tracking is fulfilling an externally and naturalistically individuated standard. And the normative aspect of concept-application so characterized depends on the relational (non-individualistic) feature of conceptual content. I defend this view against two objections. The first is that norms should provide justifications for action, and the second involves a version of the thesis of indeterminacy of reference.
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  30.  34
    Introduction to the book Symposium on The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease by guest editors.Maria Cristina Amoretti & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2021 - European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 17 (2):(M1)5-8.
    Introduction to the book symposium “THE BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL OF HEALTH AND DISEASE: NEW PHILOSOPHICAL AND SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS BY DEREK BOLTON AND GRANT GILLETT”.
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  31.  21
    Introduction.Marta Boniardi & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2020 - Phenomenology and Mind 18:10-13.
    Psychiatry and the sciences of mental health are currently in search of new methodological and conceptual foundations, and philosophy is actively involved in the quest, as the recent increase of interdisciplinary research initiatives and publications testifies (see eg. Fulford, this volume for a review). Among the different philosophical schools, phenomenology is a long-term ally for psychiatry. In the past, the work of authors such as Karl Jaspers have provided the very foundations of the di...
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  32. Fanti, S., Oyen, W., & Lalumera, E. (2019). Consensus Procedures in Oncological Imaging: The Case of Prostate Cancer.Stefano Fanti, Wim Oyen & Elisabetta Lalumera - 2019 - Cancers 11:1178-1190.
    Recently, there has been increasing interest in methodological aspects of advanced imaging, including the role of guidelines, recommendations, and experts’ consensus, the practice of self-referral, and the risk of diagnostic procedure overuse. In a recent Delphi study of the European Association for Nuclear Medicine (EANM), panelists were asked to give their opinion on 47 scientific questions about imaging in prostate cancer. Nine additional questions exploring the experts’ attitudes and opinions relating to the procedure of consensus building itself were also included. (...)
     
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  33. Concepts as abilities and concepts as representations.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2008 - Epistemologia 31 (1):75-95.
  34.  20
    Concepts, Conceptions and Psychological Explanation.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2006 - SWIF Philosophy of Mind 5 (2).
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  35.  10
    Experts and Expertise. Interdisciplinary Issues.Elisabetta Lalumera & Giovanni Tuzet - 2015 - Humana Mente 8 (28).
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  36.  69
    Etica della comunicazione sanitaria.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2022 - Bologna BO, Italia: Mulino.
    Una sintetica introduzione alle principali questioni etiche e filosofiche riguardanti la comunicazione sanitaria: la comunicazione fra medico e paziente e quella fra istituzioni, sanitari e cittadini. In uno scenario in cui autonomia e consenso della persona sono sempre più rilevanti nelle scelte di cura e di tutela della salute, l’autrice delinea un quadro concettuale aggiornato per affrontare temi problematici come la comunicazione della diagnosi, l’impostazione delle campagne di prevenzione e salute pubblica, il ruolo dei medici come esperti nei media. -/- (...)
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  37.  31
    Introduction.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2010 - Dialectica 64 (1):1-9.
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  38. More than Words.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2009 - In Kissine De Brabanter (ed.), Utterance Interpretation and Cognitive Models. Emerald.
  39.  14
    (1 other version)Normativity of meaning and semantic naturalism.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2005 - Epistemologia 28 (2).
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  40.  2
    24 Philosophical Issues in Medical Imaging.Elisabetta Lalumera - unknown
    This chapter aims to shed light on the normative questions raised by medical imaging (MI), paving the way for interdisciplinary dialogue and further philosophical exploration. MI comprises noninvasive techniques aimed at visualizing internal human body structures to aid in explanation, diagnosis, and monitoring of health conditions. MI requires interpretation by specialized professionals, and is routinely employed across medical disciplines. It is entrenched in clinical guidelines and therapeutic interventions. Moreover, it is a dynamic research field, witnessing ongoing technological advancements. After surveying (...)
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  41.  83
    Reference, knowledge, and scepticism about meaning.Elisabetta Lalumera - 2007 - Sorites (19):1-18.
    This paper explores the possibility of resisting meaning scepticism – the thesis that there are many alternative incompatible assignments of reference to each of our terms - by appealing to the idea that the nature of reference is to maximize knowledge. If the reference relation is a knowledge maximizing-relation, then some candidate referents are privileged among the others - i.e., those referents we are in a position to know about – and a positive reason against meaning scepticism is thus individuated. (...)
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