The power of stories: Responsibility for the use of autobiographical stories in mental health debates

Bortolotti, L. and Jefferson, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1870-1361 2019. The power of stories: Responsibility for the use of autobiographical stories in mental health debates. Diametros 16 (60) , pp. 18-33. 10.33392/diam.1319

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (161kB)

Abstract

Autobiographical stories do not merely offer insights into someone’s experience but can constitute evidence or even serve as self-standing arguments for a given viewpoint in the context of public debates. Such stories are likely to exercise considerable influence on debate participants’ views and behaviour due to their being more vivid, engaging, and accessible than other forms of evidence or argument. In this paper we are interested in whether there are epistemic and moral duties associated with the use of autobiographical stories in mental health debates. We argue that debate participants have a responsibility to assess a story as evidence or as an argument when the story is put forward to support a given viewpoint. We also make some preliminary suggestions about what can be done to ensure that the use of stories contributes to the variety of the resources available to debate participants without compromising the quality of the argumentation or increasing polarisation.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University
ISSN:	1733-5566
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 October 2019
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 18:25
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/126094

Citation Data

Cited 2 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item