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Dr. phil. Fabian Hundertmark

M.C. Escher-Like Photography — picture by IlNat (lincenced under Creative Commons)

Dr. phil. Fabian Hundertmark

Abteilung Philosophie
Universität Bielefeld
Postfach 10 01 31
D - 33501 Bielefeld

Fabian Hundertmark

Wissenschaftsphilosophie

E-mail: fhundertmark@uni-bielefeld.de
Telephone: +49 521 106-4593
Room: Gebäude X A4-242

Research Interests

Philosophy of Psychiatry
Metaphysics
Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy of Biology

Current Projects

I am currently part of the research group Dispositions in the Life Sciences as part of DFG research unit Inductive Metaphysics.

Mental disorders as modal properties

Abstract picture with woman head in the middle and various shapes around

In this project, I am investigating the question of what mental disorders are. My goal is to establish a comprehensive theory that answers both the question of the basic ontological category, the question of the individuation of individual types of disorders, and the question of the specific properties of mental disorders. I assume that mental disorders are dispositions to think, feel, or act. Types of mental disorders are individuated by their manifestations, causes, causal basis, or combinations of these factors, and the types so individuated are mental disorders (e.g., as opposed to personality types, cognitive abilities, or intellectual virtues) because they are harmful, irrational deviations from statistical norms.

Dispositions in biology, psychology and psychiatry

together with Marie Kaiser, María Ferreira Ruiz and Javier Juárez Diaz

In this project, we investigate the features of dispositional properties in biology, psychology, and psychiatry. In this project we show on the one hand that it is theoretically and practically fruitful to understand phenomena in the mentioned sciences as dispositions. On the other hand, we use examples of dispositions from the life sciences to give impulses for the metaphysical debate on dispositions. For instance, we show that causal bases in the aforementioned sciences are often extrinsic, processual, and contrastive. Furthermore, we use examples from the life sciences to argue for the ontological context-dependence of biological dispositions.

Non-fundamental modal properties

partly together with María Ferreira Ruiz

In this project, I address two previously understudied questions related to nonfundamental modal properties. Nonfundamental modal properties have a causal basis. In a first paper (co-authored with María Ferreira Ruiz, Bielefeld University), we explore the notion of causal basis and argue for the position that causal bases must have both a causal role for manifestation and a metaphysical grounding role for instantiation of the modal property. Combining these roles allows for important distinctions (e.g., between causal bases and manifestation conditions), captures relevant traditional features of causal bases, and can help ensure the causal efficacy of dispositional instantiations. At the same time, our theory allows neutrality with respect to fundamental properties, the existence of dispositional or extrinsic causal bases, multi-track dispositions, and the reducibility of dispositional predicates. The second part of this project is concerned with the question of what distinguishes non-fundamental multi-track dispositions from co-instantiated single-track dispositions. My working hypothesis is that non-fundamental multi-track dispositions are homeostatic clusters of properties.

Biological functions as selected dispositions

partly together with Marlene van den Bos

Black and white picture of zebras in the savanna

In this project, I develop a theory of biological functions as selected dispositions. This theory is particularly well suited to play important roles in philosophy of mind, psychiatry, and medicine. Unlike competing theories, it explains the gradability of dysfunctions, the productivity of biological functions, and the difference between dysfunctions and defects.

Completed projects

Biological Functions in Teleological Theories of Mental Content

2014 - 2019

Picture of bearded guy operating on his own mechanical brain

Teleosemantic theories provide promising, naturalistic explanations for the content of perceptual states. The notion of function has a central explanatory role here. In this project, I have developed a theory of function suitable for this purpose, synthesizing evolutionary and dispositional theories, combining their respective advantages and avoiding their problems.

This research was conducted as part of the DFG project "Advancing Teleosemantics".

The Linguistic Characterisation of Mental Content

2018 - 2022

Picture sitting of frog with fly on one limb

The contents of mental representations of non-human animals, in human core cognition and perception cannot be precisely described by sentences of a natural language. However, this fact does not prevent us from inaccurately characterizing these contents by natural language. In this project, I have developed a theory (using possible worlds of semantics, set theory, and measure theory) that can be used to capture the precision of content characterizations.

Cognitive achievements

2018 - 2021 - together with Steven Kindley

Virtue reliabilism assumes that knowledge is a cognitive achievement – an epistemic success attributable to the cognitive abilities of the knowing subject. Apart from this consensus, there is no agreement among proponents of virtue reliabilism about the conditions under which the relevant relationship between an epistemic success and a person's cognitive abilities exists. In this project, we have developed a new and attractive view of this relationship and applied it to virtue reliabilism. The resulting theory can handle cases of epistemic happiness and testimonial knowledge, among others.

The Extended Mind Thesis

2009 - 2015

Picture of woman head connected via nerves to the environment

In this project, I investigated the plausibility of the extended mind thesis. A particular focus was on the question of what implications different variants of functionalism and teleosemantics have for this thesis.

Publications

Talks

February 2024 The Role of Dysfunctions in Psychiatry, Templeton-Sowerby Joint Workshop: Function and Dysfunction in Medicine and Psychiatry, London (UK)
October 2023 Biological Functions as Selected Dispositions, Millikanfest, University of Connecticut (USA)
September 2023 Biologcal Functions as Selected Dispositions, EPSA23, Belgrade (Serbia)
10. August 2023 Causal Bases in the Life Sciences, Inductive Metaphysics: Insights, Challenges and Prospects, Düsseldorf

20. June 2023 The Modal Nature of Mental Disorders: A Comparative Analysis, Philosophy and Psychiatry Talk Series 2023, online

12. June 2023 The Modal Nature of Mental Disorders: A Comparative Analysis, Mental Disorders and Modal Properties, Berlin

29. March 2023 Biological Functions as Selected Dispositions together with Marlene van den Bos, Empirical Philosophy Workshop, Bielefeld
14. September 2022 Multi-track pluralism at the GAP.11 - Philosophie und Öffentlichkeit, Berlin
8. September 2022 Dysfunctions, Dispositions, Defects and Disorders at the ThUMB 2022 Meeting on Functions in Biology and the Biomedical Sciences, Rijeka (Croatia)
3. June 2022 Causal bases in the life sciences together with Javier Suárez at Dispositions in the Life-Sciences: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives, Trier
13. September 2021 What are causal bases of dispositions? together with María Ferreira Ruiz at the Microworkshop Dispositions and the life-sciences, Bielefeld
9. September 2021 Produktive Biologische Funktionen at the XXV. Congress of the German Society for Philosophy, Erlangen-Nuremberg (online)
3. February 2019 Varitel Semantics and Analog Productivity at the Workshop Representations in Cognitive Science, Bochum
31. January 2019 Generics in Theories of Functions at the book symposium Biological Functions: From Zebra Stripes to Synapses, Bielefeld
20. September 2018 Knowledge, Cognitive Abilities, and Sufficient Causes together with Steven Kindley at the GAP.10 - Vielfalt in der Philosophie und darüber hinaus, Colone
8. September 2018 Perceptual Contents and Biological Response Functions at the conference The Future of Teleosemantics, Bielefeld
25. September 2017 Ein ätiologisch-epistemisches Argument für den ontologischen Naturalismus at the XXIV Congress of the German Society for Philosophy - Norm and Nature, Berlin
7. September 2017 Explaining How to Perceive the New at the Workshop Teleosemantics and the Nature of Functions, Bielefeld
22. August 2017 Teleosemantics and Selected Dispositions at the European Congress of Analytic Philosophy (ECAP 9), Munich
8. September 2016 Productive Functions and Etiological Disposion Theory Round Table Discussion on the topic of "Philosophical Theories of Biological Function" with Thomas Bonnin and Alessandra Passariello at the European Advanced School in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences 2016, Vienna (Autria)
12. Juli 2016 Warum Mary nicht weiß, dass sie Qualia hat: Das ätiologisch-epistemische Argument für den Physikalismus at the Arbeitskreis Bewusstsein, Münster
15. September 2015 Produktivität als Problem für die Teleosemantik at the GAP.9 - Philosophie zwischen Lehnstuhl und Labor, Osnabrück
6. Juli 2013 Content Determinacy Challenges togeth with Peter Schulte at the author's colloquium with Karen Neander „Teleosemantics - The Natural and the Normative“, Fribourg (Swizerland)
14. September 2012 Nichtabgeleitete Repräsentationen und die These des erweiterten Geistes at the Salzburger Tagung für Junge Analytische Philosophie 2012, Salzburg (Autria)

Workshops and Conferences