Clases naturales, clases normativas y conducta humana

PEREZ, DIANA INÉS; CICCIA, LUCIA

Buenos Aires

Encuentro; Ciclo de debates del Programa de Neurociencias-CIF-2018: Filosofía y neurociencia: propuestas para un abordaje interdisciplinario?; 2018

Centro de Investigaciones Filosóficas

The thesis that we are going to defend in this paper is that a large part of human behavior cannot be understood in terms of natural kinds but by appealing to normative kinds. The plan of this paper is as follows. In the first section we will explain the distinction between natural kinds and normative kinds. In the second section we will focus on the notion of "human behavior", showing the diversity of types of behaviors and drawing a distinction between type A (involuntary bodily changes) and type B (intentional movements) behaviors; pointing out that psychology seems to be dealing with type B behaviors, which are also included as diagnostic criteria for mental disorders. In the third section we will analyze the strategies that are used in biomedical research in order to find specific etiologies (?essences?) which would explain such disorders. We will argue that their results are inconsistent, and that the absence of biomarkers that are clinically useful to refine the diagnoses responds to the fact that, unlike certain neuropathologies, there are no biological essences behind such disorders. On the other hand, we will argue that, as we are dealing with type B behaviors, we must interpret mental disorders as normative kinds. In the last section we will try to disentangle the social norms and standards behind such disorders.