Fabian Hundertmark

@fhundertmark.bsky.social

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I am a philosopher in Valencia, Spain, researching the nature and metaphysical basis of proper functions and modal properties, as well as how these can be incorporated into scientific and philosophical explanations. https://fhundertmark.net/

Blueprint graphic of human Body with the following text: What Health Is: The Blueprint View FABIAN HUNDERTMARK ABILITIES What degree of which abilities is required for complete health? FULL FUNCTIONALITY Traits with etiological functions are fully functional. DESIGN STATE The abilities it would have in its design state. NATURALISTIC DISTINCTION An objective, naturalistic distinction between health and non-health. ETIOLOGY OF TRAITS Design is determined by the etiology of traits. TREATMENT VS ENHANCEMENT Distinguishes treatment from enhancement. Now published open access in Philosophy of Medicine philmed.pitt.edu/philmed/article/view/260 Thesis: An organism is completely healthy if and only if it has the abilities it would have in its design state, where design is determined by the etiology of its traits.
Poster with mechanical Brain-Heart-like structure as decoration and with the following text: 11-12 June 2026 workshop on FUNCTIONS AND DYSFUNCTIONS IN MEDICINE AND PSYCHIATRY Facultat de Filosofia i Ciències de l'Educació • Universitat de València Virginia Ballesteros (University of Valencia) Francesca Bellazzi (Durham University) Harriet Fagerberg (University of Cambridge) Victor Fernández (University of Granada) Fabian Hundertmark (University of Valencia) John Matthewson (Massey University) Miguel de Prado (University of Granada) Henrik Røed Sherling (University of Cambridge) Ema Sullivan-Bissett (University of Birmingham) Marko Jurjako (University of Rijeka) James urnel (Umeå University Jerome Wakefield (New York University) Organizers: Virginia Ballesteros • Fabian Hundertmark • James Turner VLC Philosophi LAB a 8 GENERALITA STATAL DE NIVERSITA VALENCI
Vintage-style comic-book cover in a retro 1970s/1980s aesthetic. A green, moss-covered swamp-creature sits in a doctor’s office while a female doctor with dark hair and glasses, wearing a white coat, holds a syringe and a clipboard and speaks to him. A yellow comic-style burst reads: “Can a creature without a past be ill?” The cover also includes the author names James Turner and Fabian Hundertmark and publication information for Mefisto, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2025). The overall tone is pulpy, playful, and philosophical.
A “Change My Mind”–style meme photo. Two academics (Fabian Hundertmark and James Turner) sit at a small table outdoors (park setting) with laptops, books, and takeaway coffee cups. A large sign on the front of the table reads: “Malfunctions need history. Otherwise you fail Distinction and Futile Functioning challenge.” Below it: “Fabian Hundertmark & James Turner. Biology & Philosophy (2026). DOI: 10.1007/s10539-026-10010-2.” The photo is framed like a promotional announcement for a new paper.
Audience looks at Quill Kukla giving a talk. Slides say: How "should" we attend? • Neurodivergent attention is stigmatized and disruptivo in productvity cuture. • But it aiso has episteric advantages: - Hypertocus can lead to deep research and dive, Hyperperceptvity can lead to sensory overshelm, but also to tho discovery of significant patters, creatity, aesthetic joy Special interests can lead to deep expertise, and the abilty to stick with a project past official need. - Focusing on the "wrong" things can help us see through ideology, question presuppostions. - Neurotypical culture suppresses some forms ol attention, such as to wty norms are in place. • Gardiner: We should pay attention to what objectively mattors. Her example: Pay attention to the art and not the bathrooms in the Louvre. • But non standard attention to bathrooms may give hidden insights into gender, class, architecturel • No single objectively correct form of attention, although there are norms of attention and we sometimes rightly want our attention to work differently. Attentional differences do not inherenty yield delusions or false bellefs and may provide valuable epistemic diversity. • Neurodivergent attention can be good for detective work, philosophy, art, science, design GAP: 12 PATHWAYS TO TRUTH
Start page of website
Speakers sitting in front
Picture of Matthew Broome presenting: On slides: EPIC Epistemic Injustice in Healthcare I University of N BRISTOL UNIVERSITYOF BIRMINGHAM The University of Nottingham
Screenshot of VLC Website with Photo of Fabian + the following text: FABIAN HUNDERTMARK – Homepage Fabian Hundertmark is a postdoctoral researcher in the AUSAD project at the University of Valencia. Before joining the VLC Lab, he worked in two research projects at Bielefeld University on teleosemantics and the metaphysics of biological dispositions. His research is situated at the intersection of the philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychiatry, philosophy of biology, and metaphysics. He is particularly interested in naturalistic theories of biological function, the metaphysics of dispositions and abilities, and the conceptual foundations of mental disorder. His work addresses questions about what mental disorders are, how biological norms are grounded, and how modal properties figure in scientific explanations. He is currently developing a naturalistic theory of abilities.
Poster Content: Universität Bielefeld, May 28 and 29, 2024 Bielefeld Workshop on Philosophy of Psychiatry 2024 Speakers: Florence Adams Cambridge Sanja Dembic Belin Cornelia Elke Bielefeld Sascha Fink Erlangen Anna Hagemann Bielefeld Jonas Hartmann Bielefeld Fabian Hundertmark Beleteld David Lambert Bielefeld Roberta Locatelli rubingen Lara Keuck Bielefeld Vladimir Markovic Hannover Daniel Montero Hannover Caroline Stankozi Bochum James Turner Shetteld Organized by Fabian Hundertmark (Bielefeld) David Lambert (Bielefeld) Daniel Montero (Hannover)
Partial realization and biological normality: Jefferson’s account of brain dysfunction reinterpreted Fabian Hundertmark In her book “Are Mental Disorders Brain Disorders?” (2022), Anneli Jefferson proposes that brain processes that always realize mental dysfunctions are brain dysfunctions. This paper explores possible interpretations of two underdeveloped aspects of this thesis. First, it argues that “realization” should be interpreted as partial rather than full realization. Second, it argues that the “always” should only quantify over biologically normal situations. Taken together, these changes can account for the fact that some psychological dysfunctions are partially realized by functional mechanisms, for the existence of psychological dysfunctions due to mismatches rather than brain dysfunctions, and for the fact that brain dysfunctions do not cease to be brain dysfunctions just because they can be compensated.
Abstract Justin Garson has recently argued that proper functions are proximal activities of traits selected by phylogenetic or ontogenetic selection processes, and that traits are dysfunctional only if they cannot perform their proper functions for constitutional reasons. We partially agree with Garson, but reject the view that functions are proximal activities, as well as his account of dysfunctions. Instead, we propose our own theory that biological functions are selected dispositions and that a trait is dysfunctional in virtue of not having the dispositions for which it was selected. This account can explain both defects (or dysfunctions in Garson’s sense) and dysfunctions due to environmental factors. Moreover, it offers a neat way to explain the graduality of dysfunction.
There are three main accounts of the proper function of the low mood system (LMS): the social risk theory, the disease theory, and the propitiousness theory. Adjudicat- ing between these accounts has proven difficult, as there is little agreement in the literature about what a theory of the LMS’s proper function is supposed to explain. In this article, drawing upon influential work on the evolution of other affective sys- tems, such as the disgust system and the fear system, I argue that a theory of the proper function of the low mood system should: (i) account for the reliable, distal causes and effects of the system’s activation, and (ii) explain how having a system that performed such a function increased fitness in ancestral environments. On this basis, I show that the proper function of the low mood system is to limit resource expenditure in relatively unpropitious circumstances, exactly as hypothesised by the propitiousness theory.
Tuesday, 20-21 February 2024 Templeton-Sowerby Joint Workshop: Function and Dysfunction in Medicine and Interdisciplinary Workshop for researchers working at the intersection of Philosophy and Medicine By Sowerby Philosophy & Medicine Project, King's College London