Causal Network Accounts of Ill-Being: Depression & Digital Well-Being

Nick Byrd

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Depression is a common and devastating instance of ill-being which deserves an account. Moreover, the ill-being of depression is impacted by digital technology: some uses of digital technology increase such ill-being while other uses of digital technology increase well-being. So a good account of ill-being would explicate the antecedents of depressive symptoms and their relief, digitally and otherwise. This paper borrows a causal network account of well-being and applies it to ill-being, particularly depression. Causal networks are found to provide a principled, coherent, intuitively plausible, and empirically adequate account of cases of depression in everyday and digital contexts. Causal network accounts of ill-being also offer philosophical, scientific, and practical utility. Insofar as other accounts of ill-being cannot offer these advantages, we should prefer causal network accounts of ill-being.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPhilosophical Studies Series
Pages221-245
Number of pages25
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Publication series

NamePhilosophical Studies Series
Volume140
ISSN (Print)0921-8599
ISSN (Electronic)2542-8349

Keywords

  • Causation
  • Depression
  • Digital well-being
  • Ethics
  • Ill-being
  • Philosophy of science

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