Elvio Baccarini, prof. of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the University of Rijeka (Croatia). He has published books on public reason and biotechnologies, the political philosophy of J.S. Mill, moral epistemology, and practical ethics. He has published articles for The Journal of Medical Ethics, Grazer Philosophische Studien, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Acta Analytica and other journals. He has presented guest talks at the University of Oxford, at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, at the Freie Universität Berlin, at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, at the University of Amsterdam, at the University of Bologna, at the University San Raffaele in Milan, and at other universities. He has taught, as visiting professor, at the University of Bochum and, as Erasmus guest, at the universities of Hannover, Potsdam, Pavia and San Raffaele (Milano). He is, actually, project leader of the research project “Public Justification and Capability Pluralism”.

The problem that I discuss is how to properly define some conditions as disabilities and some persons as disabled from the medical point of view (with a focus primarily on mental disabilities).

The talk aims to reply to the general skepticism of antipsychiatry about the possibility of such definitions (Szasz). In these challenges, psychiatry is viewed as a repressive system that institutionalizes the imposition of sectarian evaluative standards.

The problem is represented by the employment of values in this discipline. Some authors think that values are not a problem if they are properly established in a way that is respectful of personal differences. I agree with the general reply, but I think that it is problematic to rely on actual personal perspectives.

There is a requirement for a method of public justification that is respectful of personal perspectives, but also examines them in order to establish what is relevant for a person, beyond the possible flaws of their own actual assessments and their unresponsiveness to reasons.

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Fellowships are enabled by the ERSTE Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund in the framework of supporting brain circulation for democratic development in Southeast Europe.