Wednesday 12 November 2014, 4.30PM
Speaker(s): Dr Jennifer Corns, University of Glasgow
The Placebo Effect
Abstract: Despite the conceptual problems in identifying the placebo effect, an increasing number of multidisciplinary inquiries rest on the assumption that there is a distinct class of effects, placebo effects. In this talk, I argue against this assumption. I present cases and characterizations of the placebo effect as offered in the literature, and argue that the latter are subject to insurmountable problems. Moreover, I argue that identification of placebo effects as such is not useful for the three main purposes offered in the literature. I close by offering suggestions for why it may remain intuitive that some effects are placebo effects.
Further information about Dr Jennifer Corns can be found at:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/jennifercorns/
Location: Department of Philosophy, Sally Baldwin Building, SB/A009
Admission: Departmental colloquium members and postgraduate students