Inaugural Lecture: The Philosophical Role of Illness

Philosophical methods have been used to study illness for several decades. In her inaugural lecture, Havi Carel will reverse the relationship between the two, asking: does illness have a philosophical role? She suggests that illness modifies, and thus sheds light on, normal experience, revealing its ordinary and therefore overlooked structure. Illness may prompt reflection or a suspension of previously held beliefs. Illness is uninvited and threatening, throwing the ill person into anxiety and uncertainty which can profoundly alter their outlook. Therefore, can illness change the ways in which we philosophise?

This lecture was recorded, and you can now listen to it via the University of Bristol website.

Picture: Visit Day at the Hospital (1889) by Jean Geoffroy