Name: Mental Disorders, Symptom Networks, and Dispositions
Start: 2026-07-09T16:30:00+1200
End: 2026-07-09T17:25:00+1200

Mental Disorders, Symptom Networks, and Dispositions

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:30pm - 5:25pm NZST

MSB1.02

On the Symptom Network Theory (SNT), a mental disorder is a network of symptoms, not an underlying condition that causes symptoms. The SNT offers an intriguing alternative to views that try to make mental disorder just like physical disorder, on the one side, and views that reject the whole idea of mental disorder, on the other. I suggest that there are counterexamples to the SNT: there can be mental disorders without networks of symptoms, and there can be networks of symptoms without mental disorders. But, I argue, those counterexamples can be avoided if mental disorders are conceived not as symptom networks, but as dispositions to display symptoms in certain patterns. I offer a theory of mental disorders as dispositions as a sympathetic amendment to the SNT. The goal is to retain the attractions of the SNT while retaining a conceptual distance between mental disorders and their symptoms.

Speakers

Simon Keller

Te Herenga Waka │ Victoria University of Wellington

I am presently working on the philosophy of mental health and disorder. I've previously written on topics in ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, and the history of philosophy. I'm the author of The Limits of Loyalty and Partiality, and a co-author of The Ethics of Patrioti... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:30pm - 5:25pm NZST
MSB1.02

Philosophy of Science, In Person

AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

Simon Keller

Attendees (21)

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AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

Simon Keller

Attendees (21)

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