Neurodiversity and neurodivergence: the epistemic, political, and ethical dimensions of conceiving differences versus deficits

This workshop brings together people working in various areas of philosophy whose work pertains to research on neurodiversity  and neurodivergence or has implications for our understanding of it. The neurodiversity movement emerged in the early 1990s as a joint action of activist autistic individuals who, through online connections, began raising awareness of various problems associated with the dominant understanding of various conditions such as autism. For instance, “they began to argue that perhaps the problems they all experienced had less to do with their brains being broken, and more to do with societal failure to accommodate their neurological differences (Chapman, Empire of Normality, 4). However, despite the movement's relatively long existence and a few exceptions in the field (notably the works of Ian Hacking, Victoria McGeer, and Robert Chapman), philosophy lags behind in embracing the significant shift in perspectives advocated by the neurodiversity movement. Fields such as philosophy of mind, epistemology, political philosophy, and ethics are directly impacted by this change in perspective on how we conceive and characterize people’s minds. The objectives of this workshop are to advance our understanding of neurodivergence and neurodiversity, and to pave the way for a change in some of our core philosophical concepts that presuppose a unique form of the human mind worthy of moral and epistemic values.

Talks:

Amelia Hicks "Deficits, Differences, and Ableism in Autism Research: Reflections on the 'Theory of Mind' Fiasco"

Manolo Pinedo and Neftalí Villanueva "The Lion, the Infant, and Solaris: Epistemic Injustice and Varieties of the Mental"

Miguel Núñez [and Victor Castro] "Non-Ideal Mindedness, Self-Regulation, and Cognitive Diversity"

Natalie Ashton "Learning from Autistic Communities Online"

Robert Chapman "Neuronormativity and Capitalism"

Virginia Ballesteros "Neurodiversity and the human form(s) of life"

Cristina Borgoni "First-Person Authority in Neurodiversity"

Gen Eickers "Divergent Emotions"

Round-table with Shalini Chakraborty: AI & Neurodivergence