The Brains Blog

Mnemonic agency?Marina Trakas  You forget your mother’s birthday. You remember telling your partner to pick up your child from school, but he insists you did not (and in fact, you didn’t). You are considering promoting an employee, and all the mistakes made by the default male candidate fade away, along with …

The role of attentional biases in addictive decision-making Federico Burdman  Addiction is of interest to philosophers, among other things, because it raises a puzzle about rationality in practical agency. A common way to lay out the puzzle takes its cue from the standard definition of addiction as persistent drug use despite harmful consequences. …

Rethinking autonomy in Alzheimer’s diseaseDominique Waissbluth Usually, people with Alzheimer’s disease are considered no longer capable of performing autonomous acts. This claim is not only common among loved ones, but also among carers. It is usually taken to be established after medical and legal assessments that state this inability. However, …

Are Psychopaths Responsible? Walter Sinnott-Armstrong  I will examine a question that sits at the intersection of moral psychology, philosophy, and criminal law: are psychopaths morally and legally responsible for what they do, and if not, what should we do with them? This is not only a theoretical problem about moral judgment, but also a deeply practical …

A workshop Cognition and Agency in Mental Disorder was held on November 18th and 19th 2025, in Santiago de Chile at Universidad Alberto Hurtado. It was organized by Federico Burdman and the Santiago Mind and Cognition group. As an international guest, the workshop featured Walter Sinnott-Armstrong from Duke University. This …