Samuel Gershon’s reply to Bernard Carroll’s answer to his question in Thomas A. Ban’s The RDoC in Historical Perspective

I agree with you. And if I want to write a grant on bipolar disorder, they tell me not to start with the diagnosis of bipolar disorder, but start with the basis of it: genes, microcellular biochemistry and neural circuits. Very good. But I don’t know which they are nor does anyone else. So how do I or anyone else write a grant? I know, you make up a new language! At Pittsburgh, I was invited by my good friend the professor of the philosophy of science to his major and important lecture. I did not understand one word, but I presume the main audience did. Therefore, these philosophers can only talk and be understood by other philosophers. Sounds very unscientific. Let us try and keep each other sane”.

Samuel Gershon

March 12, 2015