Biological explanations for schizophrenia

2020 ◽  
pp. 26-43
Author(s):  
Phil Gorman
1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 847-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti Revonsuo

Explanatory problems in the philosophy of neuroscience are not well captured by the division between the radical and the trivial neuron doctrines. The actual problem is, instead, whether mechanistic biological explanations across different levels of description can be extended to account for psychological phenomena. According to cognitive neuroscience, some neural levels of description at least are essential for the explanation of psychological phenomena, whereas, in traditional cognitive science, psychological explanations are completely independent of the neural levels of description. The challenge for cognitive neuroscience is to discover the levels of description appropriate for the neural explanation of psychological phenomena.


1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-90
Author(s):  
Karl W. Giberson ◽  

The Anthropic Principle suggests that the universe may have been designed for human life. This anthropocentric, anti-Copernican, notion elicits a variety of responses from scientists, including some elaborate attempts to invalidate it by trying to show that there may be an infinity of alternative universes. These attempts may be challenged as unreasonably speculative and presumptive. What emerges is the suggestion that cosmology may at last be in possession of some raw material for a postmodern creation myth. If the Anthropic Principle can be integrated with biological explanations of human origins, and the result joined to the traditional Biblical Creation story, what emerges is a possible recovery of a religiously traditional, yet scientifically coherent, creation story for our generation.


1995 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-264
Author(s):  
Judith Bessant

Against a backdrop of increasing popular concern about teenage street ‘gangs’, student violence in schools, high levels of youth joblessness and its perceived relationship to crime, substance abuse, suicide and homelessness, this article explores some of the biological explanations of ‘juvenile anti-social behaviour’. One of the many spheres in which eugenics has been influential is education, particularly in its application of psychology, intelligence testing and similar mechanisms for ensuring citizenship and the self-governance of young people. The article contextualises and critically analyses some of the current debates about education and young people within a critical historical analysis of eugenics.


1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy Nelkin ◽  
M. Susan Lindee

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Andersson ◽  
Sarah K. Harkness

Individuals increasingly have encountered messages that mental illness is explained by biological factors such as chemical imbalance or genetic abnormality. Many assumed this “biological turn” would lessen stigma toward mental illness, but stigma generally has remained stable or even increased. Given how nonbiological illness explanations (e.g., way one is raised, bad character, life stressors) often are endorsed even among those who support biological explanations, we contend that combinations or configurations of beliefs integrating distinct types of explanation may hold a key to understanding why biological beliefs have not succeeded in lessening stigma. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) on national vignette data (2006 General Social Survey; N = 968), we find that not blaming an individual’s character is essential to lowering depression stigma whenever biological explanations also are endorsed and that blaming character unconditionally contributes to stigmatizing alcoholism. For schizophrenia and alcoholism, biological explanations may lower stigma contingent on several other beliefs.


Author(s):  
Leyla Mariane Joaquim ◽  
Olival Freire Jr ◽  
Charbel N. El-Hani

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