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(2018) Schizophrenia and common sense, Dordrecht, Springer.
Understanding schizophrenia through Wittgenstein
empathy, explanation, and philosophical clarification
Elisabetta Lalumera
pp. 239-254
In this paper I claim that concepts taken from Wittgenstein's philosophy can shed light on the phenomenon of schizophrenia in at least three different ways: with a view to empathy, scientific explanation, or philosophical clarification. I consider two different "positive" wittgensteinian accounts—Campbell's idea that delusions involve a mechanism of which different framework propositions are parts, Sass' proposal that the schizophrenic patient can be described as a solipsist-, and a "negative" wittgensteinian account, namely Rhodes' and Gipp's, where epistemic aspects of schizophrenia are explained as failures in the ordinary background of certainties. I argue that none of them amounts to empathic-phenomenological understanding, but they provide examples of how philosophical concepts can contribute to scientific explanation, and to philosophical clarification respectively.
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Lalumera, E. (2018)., Understanding schizophrenia through Wittgenstein: empathy, explanation, and philosophical clarification, in I. Hipólito, J. Gonçalves & J. G. Pereira (eds.), Schizophrenia and common sense, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 239-254.
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