The philosophies of madness: an introduction

Abstract

What might be the value of the often rather abstract theoretical reflections of philosophy for understanding the concrete and lived experience of various forms of madness? And is there something contained within the transgres sive forms of mad experience that could be of special relevance for philo sophy? Are these two distinctively human domains of activity and experience only externally and contingently related, perhaps only the affair of the wandering philosopher with idiosyncratic interests; or might there also be a more intrinsic or even essential affinity between them? If so, then what, if any, would be the difference between philosophical reflection and amazement regarding the basic categories of human existence (e.g., the nature of reality, self, identity, truth, free will, . . .) and the kind of hyperre flexive interrogation of these foundational issues that we find in madness? This broad set of questions formed the initial impetus and topics of discussion of the first edition of the Too Mad to be True conference held in Museum Dr Guislain in Ghent (Belgium) in 2021, an international conference dedicated to exploring the various links and intersections between philosophy and madness. The contributions of the current special issue on The Philosophies of Madness that grew out of this conference have all developed these questions further, applying them in two broadly dis tinctive ways.