How autism became autism: The radical transformation of a central concept of child development in Britain 11 Jul 2013 | 11:43 am

This article argues that the meaning of the word ‘autism’ experienced a radical shift in the early 1960s in Britain which was contemporaneous with a growth in epidemiological and statistical studies i...

'I am a philosopher of the particular case': An interview with the 2009 Holberg prizewinner Ian Hacking 11 Jul 2013 | 11:43 am

When Ian Hacking won the Holberg International Memorial Prize 2009 his candidature was said to strengthen the legitimacy of the prize after years of controversy. Ole Jacob Madsen, Johannes Servan and ...

Adam Smith's economic and ethical consideration of animals 11 Jul 2013 | 11:43 am

This article examines Adam Smith’s views on animals, centering on the singularity of his economic perspective in the context of the general early ethical debate about animals. Particular emphasis is p...

The question-and-answer logic of historical context 11 Jul 2013 | 11:43 am

Quentin Skinner has enduringly insisted that a past text cannot be ‘understood’ without the reader knowing something about its historical and linguistic context. But since the 1970s he has been attack...

Moralizing biology: The appeal and limits of the new compassionate view of nature 11 Jul 2013 | 11:43 am

In recent years, a proliferation of books about empathy, cooperation and pro-social behaviours (Brooks, 2011a) has significantly influenced the discourse of the life-sciences and reversed consolidated...

Book review: The dawn of critical neuroscience 11 Jul 2013 | 11:43 am

Book review: Luigi Russolo, Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts and the Occult 11 Jul 2013 | 11:43 am

Book review: The Pursuit of the Nazi Mind: Hitler, Hess, and the Analysts 18 Apr 2013 | 10:40 am

Religion, polygenism and the early science of human origins 18 Apr 2013 | 10:40 am

American polygenism was a provocative scientific movement whose controversial claim that humankind did not share a common ancestor caused a firestorm among naturalists and the lay public beginning in ...

Badness, madness and the brain - the late 19th-century controversy on immoral persons and their malfunctioning brains 18 Apr 2013 | 10:40 am

In the second half of the 19th-century, a group of psychiatric experts discussed the relation between brain malfunction and moral misconduct. In the ensuing debates, scientific discourses on immoralit...